Prongs
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Harry abandons the Dursley house in favor of joining the Royal Air Corps. How will his new skills change the way the war ends? Transformers XOVER Strong Harry!
1. Chapter 1

Harry looked at the book in disbelief. Here was a way to escape both the war and Dumbledore in one go.

The only problem was that it required help from his uncle, who wasn't happy with him at the moment. He had arrived after Dudley last night, and had managed to break in around eleven.

Uncle Vernon had been waiting for him. With a bloody shotgun.

That was by far scarier than facing Voldemort and Death Eaters. Mainly because while it would take the Dark tosser a good ten minutes for him to finally get around to killing him, Vernon wouldn't take that long to shoot him.

Still, considering the fact that he could con his uncle into helping him, he would never step foot on his doorstep again.

Which made the odds of success pretty damn good.

Harry tentatively walked up to his uncle.

"Uncle Vernon? I need your help with something."

"If this is another thing you need for that freaky school you can forget it."

Harry mentally snorted.

"Hardly. What I need your help with has absolutely _nothing_ to do with my school."

Now Vernon was interested. Harry handed him the form which he had printed out.

"I just need you to help lie about my age and sign this paperwork. Then I'll get out of the house and never come back willingly."

Apparently Vernon heard that last bit.

"Willingly? You mean those other freaks would drag you back if I don't allow this?"

"_Dumbledore_ is the only person who even wants me to stay here. I would have stayed in the damn castle over the summer vacation if given half the chance."

Vernon seemed to take five minutes to think about this.

On one hand, if he went through with this, his freakish nephew would be out of the house a full three weeks early. But...if the other freaks caught wind they would drag him back. And then bother his family even more.

"You have a deal."

* * *

Two days later Harry convinced his uncle to take him to London for the day.

Harry had a Slytherin green shirt and black jeans on. He had a ball cap with the Slytherin symbol embroidered in silver. It was the perfect disguise. Everyone knew Harry didn't get along with Slytherins, so the last thing they would expect would be to see him wearing their colors and animal. It even had the words '_Slytherins RULE'_ under the snake.

His first stop was Gringotts.

"How may we help you today?" asked Griphook.

"Hello Griphook. I was hoping you could help me with something."

Griphook's eyes narrowed considerably. How did this human recognize him on sight? Then the kid lifted the cap and he saw the scar. He held back a gasp. The boy-who-lived recognized him?

"How may I help you today Master Potter?"

"Can we discuss this away from any prying ears?"

Griphook lead him away into his private office.

"Master Griphook, I wish to lock down my vault until I can return safely into the magical community. I plan on heading into the Royal Air Force for a while until that time."

"What of your other vaults?"

"Wait...I have more than one?"

Griphook's eyes narrowed even further.

"Your magical guardian should have alerted you to your thirteen vaults. The Gryffindor, Peverell, Pendragon and Potter vaults. As well as your trust which is what you have the key to. Nine of your vaults are sealed until you reach of age. Four you may access now if you wish."

"The only key I have goes to my trust."

Griphook waved his hand, and thirteen keys appeared.

"All keys have been retrieved and changed. Shall we look into the other vaults?"

"Yes, please."

Griphook honestly liked the Potter heir. Most goblins who helped him to his trust usually did, and it was simple why. Harry Potter treated them like equals every time he met with their kin. Even at the Quidditch World Cup, when the goblins ran into him he gave them a nod of equals.

A rarity in the magical communities.

Harry went into the other four vaults, and found things he could use. He took out a large sack which had an infinite storage. He put his school trunk into it. He also took out at least ten books, and a diary belonging to his mother. The last thing he took out was over a thousand galleons from his trust.

"There is someone who wishes to speak with you Lord Potter."

"Who?"

"The one in charge of acquisitions. Sharphook."

"Lead the way Master Griphook."

Sharphook turned out to be Griphook's father. He could see the family resemblance.

"Master Potter. I have been eager to meet you for some time."

"I was usually accompanied by an adult, so it was unwise for me to meet you in person, Master Sharphook. What is it you wish to see me about?"

"For some time the amount of acquisitions has become stagnant. I wish to correct this, if possible."

"What do you need?"

"Your signature and approval to pursue new venues."

"How about this. I give Sharphook full authority to pursue new venues and purchases that pertain to the accounts under my name. Will that cover it?"

Sharphook was amazed. Full control of all four accounts? This would probably be the last time he would be given such trust by a human.

"I hope I meet your expectations, Lord Potter."

"I wouldn't have the first clue about acquiring new stocks and companies. I may as well assign someone I know to be competent and trustworthy to do the job right. And right now I trust the goblin clans more than any wizard."

* * *

When Harry left the bank, he had been given a new magical signature since the goblins discovered several spells holding his power in check. They released them free of charge, which surprised him. He would have paid them whatever they asked to get rid of spells he never put on himself.

Next up was a major shopping spree. He hit the bookstore, apothecary, and pet store for owl food. He planned to drop off the map for a few years if he could. Then he spotted a certain alley which held a bad memory for him. Knockturn. Last time he went there he had to have Hagrid save him.

But they would have books that the Ministry didn't have. Would it be worth the risk of being seen?

After that disaster in Little Hangleton, bloody hell yes.

So Harry ducked into the alley, and practiced his pickpocketing skills. He was a little rusty. He hadn't really needed to use them since the coppers caught him when he was ten, right before he started Hogwarts. Guess he should be thankful that Dumbeldore needed him at his aunts house, because his Juvie record had been wiped clean the last time he went in. Harry even knew why it was always wiped clean.

Cops tend to notice bruises and his back used to be full of them. Every time he went in for pickpocketing he ran the risk of being sent to a home. Which was what he was trying to get.

It seemed his skills weren't that rusty after all. He managed to get over three hundred galleons and the idiots weren't even aware of it until it was too late. And it seemed that since he was clearly up to something illegal, the denizens of the alley left him alone. Too bad Dumbledore didn't know his precious boy-who-lived was more Slytherin than Gryffindor. Harry smirked.

Borgin and Burkes.

He ducked in, and found what he was looking for. A set of knives, spelled to curse whoever got cut with them with extreme bad luck. And a series of very old books long since put on the restricted or banned list. Harry picked up the lot, and went to the counter.

"How much."

"Five hundred galleons, fifty sickles."

He handed them over without a word, and left. He had to duck into a side shop when he saw Remus, trying to recruit for Dumbledore.

Remus stopped, and sniffed tentatively. He must be imagining things. Harry was still at his relative's house. Why would he be in a Dark alley? He walked past a boy with Slytherin colors and didn't think twice. Once he got a stronger hint of the scent, and knew it had to be Harry, he turned.

The boy was gone! He felt something in his back pocket. Pulling it out revealed it to be a large bag of galleons along with the note '_Buy some better robes Uncle Moony'_.

Harry!

* * *

The next day Harry took the form to the post, and got a reply back. It included the address and directions to the nearest base.

Vernon waited until Harry packed, and then dropped boy and owl at the site.

"You James Black?"

"I am."

"Follow me. Your owl will have to join the others."

"Go on, Hedwig."

Hedwig hooted and followed the nearest owl to a new perch. There were about ten others there already.

"How old are you really James?"

"I turn fifteen in a week."

"So you'll be taking your OWLs this year?"

"Yes sir."

"Which house are you in?"

Remembering the idiots which he had to deal with when he was a lion, he went for the first option the hat wanted to put him in.

"I was a Gryffindor, but the hat wanted to put me in Slytherin first."

"Honest, I like that. Alright, you have two choices. You can join Godric's Gryffins or Salazar's Snakes."

"What's the difference between them?"

"The Gryffins fly the BAE Hawk, the Snakes fly Grob G 109."

"Which goes faster?"

"Let me put it this way then. What broom type do you fly?"

"I used to have a Nimbus, but it was destroyed by the Whomping Willow. Now I fly a Firebolt."

"Gryffins it is. Depending on whether you pass the test in two months, you may find yourself joining the Royal Air Corps."

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"Listen up recruits! This is your first test into the Corps, so pay attention! Since you lot are rank newbies when it comes to flying planes, we'll have you go up with a senior pilot. This is to test your ability to handle the speed, inertia, and whether any of you are afraid of heights. The list goes up alphabetically!"

"_Black, James!"_

He got up and followed them. He was already outfitted with chute, helmet and a barf bag. He had been drilled in the safety instructions when it came to the chutes. Blue first, then if that failed red.

He really, _really_ hoped he wouldn't have to use it.

Once they reached cruising altitude, the pilot gained an evil smirk. Harry recognized it immediately.

This guy was going to pull a few tricks to see if he could get Harry to flinch or worse. Harry grinned. Good luck with that! He had flown with the twins!

_Fifteen loop-d-loops, spins, dives and sudden drops each later..._

While he hadn't cried for his mother, barfed, passed out or screamed in pure terror, he had lost any sense of direction he had for a while. He would have to sit down on solid ground for a few minutes to regain his balance. The pilot was very disappointed.

Somehow Harry couldn't care less about that. The jerk tried his best to get him to break! If the Dark Tosser and the Death Muncher couldn't scare him, what the hell made this guy this his crappy flying skills would?

He said as much over the intercom built in the helmet when they were close to the ground. Once he regained his balance enough to walk without falling, he went to a seat. And saw the guy grinning wildly at him.

Why did that grin inspire more fear than the twins when they were in pranking mode?

The pilot talked to the instructor quietly while the plane was refueled. He pointed to Harry. The instructor nodded, and once the other ten had been tested (five were sent away, since they couldn't cut it apparently) he went to Harry. Somehow he knew something was up.

"Looks like you impressed Leon. And he is a difficult man to impress Black. Try to pass basic training, and you may find yourself in the Gryffins."

He stared at him.

"Who is Leon?"

"Leon happens to be in charge of the Gryffins. He always volunteers to fly potentials up in exchange for more time off base. So consider yourself warned."

_Oh crap._

Harry had cussed him out after the tenth spin. And he had used his most creative arsenal of words on the guy. Just his luck the man _happened _to be in charge of the same division he hoped to get into.

One of the recruits finally asked something that had been bothering Harry as well.

"Why aren't there any girls trying out?"

The man turned to them all, eyes serious.

"The female applicants are sent to the other base. They are going into a separate division entirely. Unlike Hogwarts we don't let hormonal teenagers run loose. You are here to learn how to fly first, and pick up girls second. The Helga Badgers and Rowena Ravens are not interested in anything other than joining their divisions. The last thing they need is a bunch of horny boys compromising their chances."

"Do we still take our OWLs while we're in training?" asked Harry.

The man looked at him, and smirked.

"Those who still wish to pursue a life in Britain's magical community can do so. If you pass the basic training you can choose which classes to take and we will make sure you pass your Ordinary Wizarding Levels on time. This brings me to another topic most people ask. Brooms are to be handed over and not to be touched until we start flight training. We keep a guard over all brooms, and we label each one so no one else uses yours without permission from you first."

"Why do we have to hand them over?"

"We train in a separate location for the planes. If you were to fly around here, even at night, the corps would be shut down and you would be thrown out without question. Once you pass your first month you are allowed to fly at night. This is to allow you a chance to acquaint yourselves with flight conditions without wasting our fuel."

Harry raised his hand.

"Won't conditions for broom flight and plane flight be completely different?"

"Yes and no. While you won't have to worry about gauges and birds on a broom, you would also have a harder time flying at night in a plane. Once you are comfortable with flying at night, we will let you take up a helicopter so you can get used to flying in one. If you want to try your hand at night on your assigned plane, you must get the approval of your senior pilot and a qualified pilot to go up with you."

"So basically you want us to get used to a limited field of vision while we are on something that doesn't go up too high and is easier to catch us from," summarized Harry.

"Precisely. If you still have your wand when you pass, then we teach you the charm to call an instructor who can catch you just in case. Also, we have a full Quidditch field in the second location, and we do allow people to play the game on your days off."

"Boys versus girls?" guess Harry.

"Pretty much. Any of you decent Seekers? Our current one can't catch it unless the bloody thing is right in front of him."

Harry raised his hand again.

"Try to survive training. We can't take another defeat at the hands of Helga's Badgers."

Harry grinned.

* * *

Normally he would wonder if the Knight Bus was responsible for his sore body. But once he fully woke up around 4:45 every morning, he would remember the reason why he was tired as hell. He was the only person who ever woke up before the morning call each day.

He was also the only person in the barracks who always got a hot shower every morning. Something his bunk mates cursed him out for, because they had a limited amount of hot water. It always made him laugh, and he usually answered them by flinging a spoonful of scrambled eggs at the first person to start the cursing that morning.

Once they had their morning coffee though, the swearing dropped down to a minimum. He considered himself _very_ lucky that they took their wands away before they even started training. Otherwise he would have been on the receiving end of more than one hex or jinx for stealing the shower every morning.

Next week they would be taken to the second location, where they would show them how to shoot and fly. They had spent the past three weeks learning to be soldiers, and given at least four different styles of hand to hand combat.

Harry was now proficient in jujitsu, boxing, taijutsu, and kendo. The basics anyway. It seemed he picked up hand to hand faster than most, since the instructors had him using some of the more advanced techniques last week.

On the plus side, he was now stronger than he ever was and able to disarm an opponent within seconds. On the down side...he was sore as hell each morning from stretching, blocking and taking hits from his fellow would be pilots.

This was the reason he set his internal alarm clock to 4:30 in the morning. It used to be on 5:50 when he lived in the Dursley house. It had taken some getting used to, but the hot shower more than made up for lost sleep.

The one thing he wondered about is the fact that not one of his so called friends had even bothered to owl him about where he was. They even forgot his birthday, which was unusual because he doubted his godfather would suddenly forget it.

"Listen up! Today is your first mail call! Come to the Owl Posts for your mail, if you have any!" yelled Leon.

Harry got up and went to the Posts. He usually went there every other day to see Hedwig. They were the only people who knew what his real name was. They headed into the back and brought out a large sack of letters.

"We go over each letter, and removed fifty port keys which had been hidden. We also got rid of quite a few howlers from Molly Weasly."

Harry winced in sympathy.

"Thanks. I hate port keys with a passion."

Harry found over twenty letters from Hermione, and twelve from Ron. The first half was full of non-information...but the rest seemed to be geared at demanding to know where he was. They accused him of not being a friend or not caring about them.

He found five from the twins. These were in the range of knowing how he was, and hoping he was doing okay, wherever the hell he was. They let him know about getting their license, and how their business was doing. Inside the last one was a flier and a way to order directly from them if he wanted.

Then he found the ten from Sirius. The first two was full of no info like Ron and Hermione. Then he asked Harry what he was doing in Knockturn. The one after that seemed to tell Harry that Sirius had copped to the fact that Harry was James' son, and stubborn as a mule. He wished Harry good luck at whatever he was doing, and only asked that his godson at least let him know he was alright and not in too much trouble.

The next letter was his Hogwarts. He ripped this one in half promptly. And was a bit incredulous at the one from the Ministry saying he performed the Patronus in front of his muggle cousin. This one he saved to take to the instructor to explain to the idiots in the Ministry that he had been in training at the time, in full view of fifty people.

The last letter was from Dumbledore. It was full of reproachful words, and it was clearly an attempt at guilting him into returning to Hogwarts.

Not bloody likely.

Once he put away his letters, he went back to the Owl Posts and asked for an owl. His was too noticeable, for obvious reasons. He paid the ten galleons and sent a letter to Sirius and the twins using Hedwig. The other went to Dumbledore telling him not to contact him again. That owl was instructed not to return for a week.

* * *

"Congratulations. You passed the initial training for the corps. You will now be sent to either the Snakes or the Gryffins depending on your test scores."

"James Black, Alex O'Connell, Andrew Smith, Eric Randolph. You four are now Gryffins. Samuel Weber, Terrance Nicks, Harry Finnegan, you are now Snakes. Good luck gentlemen!"

Leon came in, and said "All Gryffins are to follow me. Try to survive the next month boys!"

It took them four hours to reach the next place. Harry gaped, in complete disbelief. He recognized that forest immediately.

"Our second location is on the other side of the _Forbidden Forest_?"

The others stopped and looked at him. How did he know where it was?

Leon turned to him.

"How in the name of Merlin did you figure _that_ out? No one has ever known where we train before."

Harry glared at him.

"Clearly no one who has ever gone _into_ that damn forest has ever been on the other side of it. I've been in and out of that forest at least once every year!"

Leon shrugged.

"The Gryffins train on the land which was left by Godric Gryffindor to Hogwarts. It's still within the wards, so the Ministry can't find us. And it allows us to give magic lessons without setting off the sensors every damn day."

Harry nodded. That made good sense. Being this close to the school, the sensors would be hard put to tell who was casting. And it was already out of the way, so muggles would be unlikely to find them. It made tactical sense.

"Another thing. If you can survive the next month of lessons, you are allowed to visit the village. Just avoid the students if you can. The last thing we need is for that old goat who runs the castle to find our location."

Harry could see his point. Then he realized something.

"What if we could coordinate so that running into a student would go down? Have our days off during a weekend which didn't coincide with Hogsmeade visits?"

Leon turned to him, interested.

"You have a way into the castle? A way which wouldn't alert the old man?"

His answering smirk sent shivers down the spines of the other trainees.

"I have a map and contacts in the castle."

"See me later if you survive training. Find your bunks and get to dinner!"

"Yes Sir!"

Harry loved the feeling of flying on his broom. Even if it was during the night. Unlike the others, he took every chance he could get up in the air to get used to limited vision. Even on new moons. Leon was so impressed with his Map that he helped him contact the twins so they could coordinate their visits to the village. They even supplied the password to the tower so Harry could get in and out easier.

Even if this was made harder by the fact that Ron and Hermione had made Prefect. They knew to watch the One-Eyed witch passage. And the Willow.

Still, Harry managed to get in and out of the school with relative ease using a disillusionment charm and the map. He went into the tower and gave the twins a book that had a spell which linked it to another book in Leon's office.

He also left a present for Ron in his bed. The minute he opened that box left by Harry with his name written by him, he would find himself with over a hundred paper spiders crawling all over him.

The twins promised to take pictures of the results.

* * *

Harry didn't know whether to be excited or worried about his first Hogsmeade visit since he went into the Gryffins. He was excited because it meant that he could pick up a few things he had ordered with Hedwig which were being held for him at the owl post under his assumed name.

He was worried that someone would recognize him and tell Dumbledore or the others. Oh well, if he was recognized he could always spend his days off reading.

He flew his broom to the cave Sirius had hid during that disastrous tournament. The others took point, and they stashed the brooms in the cave. Once they reached the village they stocked up on everything while they took their day off.

Harry hit Zonko's and Honeydukes the hardest. He topped it off with a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. His scar was well hidden under his Slytherin cap, and he was wearing their colors. So if anyone looked at him they would assume he was a random Slytherin who happened to have sneaked out of the castle. Everyone knew Snape wouldn't bust his snakes for something that minor.

It was his best disguise yet.

He noticed a few people he recognized, like Moody and Remus nearby. Thinking about how he could get them without letting them know who he was, he grinned.

He had Madam Rosemerta send Moody a fire whiskey charmed blue and green. Remus got a butterbeer jinxed to turn him Hufflepuff colors. Moody was suspicious as ever, but Remus took a drink without checking his. He didn't know someone had just paid his drink for him.

The first moment he knew something was wrong was when Moody's spinning eye stopped directly on him. Then he went to the loo and yelped in surprise. A minute later he asked the barkeep who had tampered with his drink, and found it was someone who had gone by the name of Prongslet.

Harry had been long gone the moment Remus went to the loo. He was the first to the cave and he waited five minutes for the others to join him. It was almost time to head back anyway.

Once they were there, Leon inspected each of them. Whatever he was looking for wasn't there, since he let them in.

"I got a report that someone got Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin with hexed drinks. Anyone want to claim responsibility for that one?"

Harry didn't bother faking innocence. He hadn't hexed the drinks, but he did order them hexed by the staff. Madam Rosemerta wasn't too happy about Moody being so suspicious of her cooking apparently. And Remus...well it was a rather harmless prank, so they went along with it. The fact that Harry had paid them five galleons for each drink didn't hurt either.

Leon was a tad annoyed, but he let it slide. Moody hadn't found the one responsible, and none of the trainees had come back with any spells on them.

"No more pranking Ex-Aurors who know what they are doing, alright?"

Harry grinned.

"Training tomorrow morning!"

Harry went to eat dinner and found himself with Leon on his other side. Somehow he knew this wasn't going to end well.

"I have a feeling it was you who got Moody and the werewolf. Am I mistaken?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Leon gave him a look. Harry could not pull off the innocent look to save his life. So he went for confused instead.

"James, you were the first back to the brooms, and you happen to have contacts in the school. Did you really think you could hide who you were..._Harry Potter?_"

Harry winced.

"I knew who you were. I recognized you immediately. You look just like your father with your mother's eyes. I didn't say anything because I wanted to see how far you could go as a normal pilot. But if you continue pulling stunts like the one with Moody I will have to tell the General."

The General was the one who lead all four Corps, and to be sent to him usually meant serious trouble. No one knew what his real name was, or what Corp he originally went into, but everyone agreed he was a hard-ass with no time for pranks.

"Are you going to tell him I came under a fake name?"

"No. You only lied about your age and name to get in. I read the Prophet, so I know that the Ministry would try anything to hang you out to dry. Like that stunt with the under-aged magic use. They dropped the case when I went to explain to Madam Bones, but if they are willing to break their precious Statute of Secrecy to get rid of you, then you must be in big trouble."

Leon sat back, and looked at him in the eye.

"Besides...you were the only recruit who has ever cursed me out for my little trick with the maneuvers. And you are the only person in this lot who didn't break after the third trick. Which would make you the best flier of the lot."

Harry let go of the lump in his throat. Leon wasn't going to send him away or get rid of him.

"Now...what code name do you want on the side of the plane we're assigning you?"

"Prongs."

"Prongs?"

"My dad's old nickname. Sirius and Remus always call me Prongslet, so I might as well live up to the name."

"Okay, Prongs it is. Now what classes do you plan to take?"

"Arithimancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures and advanced Defense."

"Which ones were you taking in the school?"

"Divination and Care of Magical Creatures."

"So we need to catch you up on two years of classes."

"Yup."

"I'll make the calls."

* * *

The next two months was spent between magic lessons for Harry, Eric and Alex, and learning the ins and outs of an F-22 fighter plane. Harry had the least experience with planes, as the entire choice to sign up had been made at short notice.

Yet he was a quick learner, always asking the mechanics about parts and how they reacted to others. Because he bothered to ask, he could fly within a month of starting planes.

The only problem he seemed to have with them was actually hitting something when he used the guns. Even in the simulator he had trouble hitting things. He kept wasting bullets for some reason.

While he was the best pilot of the lot, he was the worst at shooting. He could hit things while on the ground just fine, but shooting midair was difficult. He had absolutely no clue why.

The fact that he was a crappy shot in the air actually endeared him to the other pilots. Since he couldn't shoot worth a damn, they put him in a Black Hawk helicopter instead. He wouldn't be shooting down other pilots, but he would certainly out-fly them.

Then came the infamous Poker incident. Leon and the commanders of the other Corps challenged the rookies to a game of poker. This group included Harry of course. Most of the rookies dropped out within five rounds. Harry was the only rookie left after fifteen. Now the other rookies stayed around to see how long he would last.

Harry ended up beating the Corps leaders and left them owing him a sum of a thousand pounds _each. _They were cursing out him_ and _Leon for bringing in the rookies. Said rookies were either laughing their asses off at the sight or gaping at Harry outright.

Harry however kept up his innocent look even when the game was finally over.

Ever since this incident the commanders have been rather embarrassed when someone brought the game up. Something the rookies took full advantage of. Harry had become the man to beat at the game, and had run up a winning sum of five thousand the last time it was played.

He mostly used the games to buy favors with the other pilots in exchange for forgiving the dept. It worked out, usually.

Christmas. They were being given two weeks leave to go home for the holidays. Halloween had been spent pranking the commanders with tips from both the twins and Harry. The Halloween feast everyone had spent as one corp, sharing a meal and jokes with each other. Harry compared it to the Hogwarts celebrations and realized he preferred this way. The corps inspired a camaraderie that the castle was missing.

For one thing, the tests and homework they were given was far more interesting and usually didn't involve a load of studying beforehand. And they never bothered the other corps in between classes.

It was impossible to hold an inter-corp grudge simply because of some conception of a certain type of plane. Like the Slytherins and the Gryffindors. Or the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs. Both houses usually had an unfriendly rivalry going on that really got to a broiling point over Quidditch.

But here it was impossible to bother the other side. They trained in a location separate from each other. And the girls trained on the other side of the boys. The only time they even saw someone from another division was during the visits to the village or holidays on base. And they didn't bother to have passwords, since if they accidentally discovered another base they were allowed to visit during days off. They hid nothing from each other...though boys were restricted from going to the girls base and vice versa.

Harry had no clue where he would go. Usually he spent this holiday in the castle, but he was avoiding the old goat so that wasn't an option this time.

Hedwig landed on his shoulder with a note.

_Harry, why don't you spend Christmas with me? The address is Number twelve Grimmauld Place, and the floo is active. Just use the powder to say Grimmauld Place and you'll get there. Oh, and watch out for the twins. From Padfoot._

Harry was relieved. He would love to spend his leave with Sirius. He told Leon his plans, and got a port key for the return trip. Just in case Dumbledore found him and erased his memory, they had it password protected. Inside was an engraving with the words '_Say the nicknames of the Marauders out loud.'_

The password was Prongs.

* * *

Harry took the floo, and landed on top of a certain werewolf when he came out. Sirius was laughing his head off at the sight of Remus being knocked out by a fifteen year old.

Add to the fact that the same fifteen year old got behind Moody and knocked him out cold with a well placed hit, and he was on the floor trying to breathe.

"Harry, where did you learn that?" asked Remus in shock. (He had long since forgiven the incident at Hogsmeade, though he wondered how he pulled it off.)

"I left the Dursleys for the Royal Air Corps. I'm currently the top rookie in the Gryffin division."

Remus stared. Everyone had heard of the Royal Air Corps mage division. It was the only part of the British military which had four separate divisions and the newest weaponry. Once something had been field tested and proved, the Royal Air Corps were upgraded no matter the cost.

Rumor amongst the creatures held back by the ministry claimed they had a secret training facility for new members.

Apparently that particular rumor was true, since Harry had been missing for months. Not even secret port keys worked. Dumbledore was furious over the whole thing.

Then Harry shows up for Christmas like nothing happened. Even though Remus knew he had been in Knockturn and Hogsmeade when it wasn't a scheduled weekend.

"Harry why were you in Knockturn?"

"I was shopping and reacquiring some old skills Remus. Nothing to worry about."

"What old skills?" asked Sirius.

"Why don't you ask Remus? He must have gotten an inkling after I left those galleons in his pocket to buy some decent robes."

Remus thought back to that day. The only thing that stuck out was the fact that he had caught Harry's scent on a boy about his age. The boy had bumped...

"You bumped into me. That was you, wasn't it?"

"What better way to hide the boy-who-lived than by donning Slytherin colors? You never even suspected me until you caught my scent. And even then you didn't realize I had just passed you on the street."

Sirius stared at him.

Harry smirked, and then did his favorite trick of all. He walked past Sirius, not even stopping.

"Check your pockets Sirius."

Sirius did just that, and his look of confusion grew to surprise...his wand was missing.

"Looking for this?"

Harry held up a wand, exactly thirteen inches long.

"How...?" said Sirius, dumbstruck.

"You're looking at a master pickpocket. The only reason you didn't know about it is because Dumbledore wiped my juvie record clean each time I let myself get caught. You can blame the old goat for crappy child placement."

A week later Harry woke up to a nightmare of Arthur Weasly being attacked. He told Sirius and the man was saved from a nasty snake bite. Over the next week he had to deal with glares from Ron and Hermione. But mostly Ron for the paper spiders trick.

Both of his former friends demanded to know where he had been all summer. (Which is probably why he stole their wands.)

Harry on the other hand enjoyed his leave, and prepared to go back once it was time.

Which is when Dumbledore and Snape made their appearance. Harry knew the old goat would try to find out his location through his mind, so he projected thoughts of his first month of training.

It worked. Snape left with the location of the Corps initial site, and they prepared to drag him back once he left via Port key.

"_Prongs"_

* * *

Harry crash landed on top of Leon. Unfortunately for him, the cameras caught the entire thing on tape. (Said tape was distributed throughout the bases and replayed over and over for weeks after.)

For the next few months, Harry studied and flew almost every day. When the OWLs started, he went through each question methodically and wrote down the best answer he could. For each practical he took his time and got it done right. He even earned a few more points on his Advanced Defense for summoning a corporeal Patronus when asked.

It was after his final OWL that he had the vision. And it worried him greatly, since the last one he had came true. So he told Leon.

Leon signed off on the night flight and came with Harry. Since they were heading to London he had Harry practice using the stealth function on the helicopter, and some more advanced maneuvers.

It calmed him down and taught him something new to practice. They reached the Ministry an hour after he had the vision, and Leon gave him the code to enter the building.

It was completely empty, and they made their way to the Department of Mysteries.

Leon used to work for the ministry a long time ago, before he joined the corps. He was a former member of that department, but he grew sick of the games Fudge played and the fact that muggleborn students rarely got higher than a secretary. So he left.

Fortunately they hadn't changed anything since he left.

Leon lead them into the hall of prophecies, which is where Harry had seen Sirius being tortured.

He wasn't there. The hall was devoid of life, and no one else was in the place. The whole thing reeked of a setup.

Then the Death Eaters began appearing, and everything went to hell. For the Death Eaters that is.

On his right wrist was a charm bracelet with different things on it. One was a parachute, ready to put on at a moment's notice. One was a helmet, with intercom. One was a series of knives. But the one Harry pulled out was a gun. The same one he was assigned once he passed his marksmen test.

He dropped to a crouch, and said clearly, "Leave now or I shoot."

Lucius Malfoy was unafraid of the muggle weapon. He prepared to fire a warning curse at the brat instead.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

Harry fired...

Bellatrix Lestrange fell to the ground, dead. MacNair was next, followed by Nott, Avery and Rudolphos Lestrange.

Malfoy ducked, and went to hex Harry. Harry rolled to the side, then came up with his knife and pinned it against the man's carotid artery.

"You move and this blade goes into your neck, and you bleed out in less then two minutes. Now tell the others to leave, or I will cut your artery. Am I clear?"'

Lucius hissed as the blade cut into his neck, and said "Fine, Potter."

Harry grabbed the odd orb which the DE's were after and they apparated back to the helicopter. They were back at the base before breakfast.

* * *

**_If you want me to continue this, leave a review!_**


	2. Chapter 2

Leon took aside all the trainees who were under sixteen. James, Alex, Eric and Terrance all lined up.

"Alright listen. Officially we can't have people under sixteen in the Force. So in order to compensate for that problem and to keep parliament off our backs, we send you to another base outside the UK for what is affectionately known as 'survival training'."

"Where do we go, sir?" asked Harry.

"Well, since the number of under-aged trainees vary from year to year, it's done by a lottery of sorts. So you're all going to come up and draw a card. Whatever you get is where you go."

One by one they all drew a card. Harry discreetly looked at it.

"Read them out loud boys. Depending on where you got, it could take a week or a month of vacation for you."

"US SOCCENT Air Base in Qatar," he read out.

"Nagasaki Air Base," read Eric.

"Cairo Air Base," said Alex.

"Area 51..." said Terrance.

Four pairs of incredulous eyes stared at him.

"Seriously?" said Leon.

Terrance grinned.

"Actually it says somewhere in Colorado Springs."

Harry whocked him a good one.

"I'll let you know when the arrangements are made. Return to the base outside London for news."

Harry went to Grimmauld place and told Sirius and Remus the news that he would be spending a year out of England. Which prompted a party courtesy of Sirius and the twins.

* * *

One Week Later...

Sirius went with his godson to the base.

Leon looked up from his curse (paperwork), and saw the two.

"Hello James. Here to see if they're ready for ya?"

Harry grinned at him.

Leon looked at his papers and then back at the two. He handed the top one to the kid who read the disclaimer. Since they couldn't legally train him overseas without consent, he had to sign a paper saying he understood the dangers of what he was about to do.

He signed it after reading it all the way through. Leon made sure it was all in order and filed it away.

"You have two weeks to get ready before you fly to the base. I recommend getting gear for the desert, because Qatar is in the Middle East."

"Which means it will be hotter than hell and limited water," surmised Harry.

"And you'll be surrounded by muggles, so your magic should be limited to life threatening dangers and unusual circumstances. While you are there, you are advised to work on your hand to hand, shooting and ability to survive any situation. You will follow orders given to you by superiors, and if you get into too much trouble you will be kicked out of the Royal Air Force* and put into the British Army."

Leon said this with an air of long practice.

Harry waited patiently and paid attention to what Leon said.

Leon told him the usual fair of those who ended up in the Middle Eastern assignments.

He would have to pay close attention to the locals, assist US troops when needed, answer to anyone from his side of the 'pond' in case of an emergency first, keep track of water rations, and most importantly, try not to prank his new roommates too badly. That last bit was new, and only added for his benefit.

"In other words, _Black_, you are not allowed to prank anyone on the base using magic, however subtle. You'll have to learn how to do it the old fashioned way," said Leon with a grin.

Poor Sirius looked disappointed at that news. He had been hoping to teach his godson some good wizard pranks.

"You are however, allowed to beat everyone on that base at Poker and videotape the result," said Leon with an even bigger smirk.

Harry laughed. Everyone who played against him knew that he had the best Poker face on any base.

"Now, as your Commanding Officer, I want you to really work on your aim with a gun. Your hand to hand needs refining, as you have only mastered the basics of the arts. As for your flying skills..."

Leon pulled out a new bracelet for him. On it was a tiny helicopter, a new plane he didn't recognize, a parachute, his Firebolt and a small bag.

"Go ahead and ask."

"What kind of plane and copter are these?"

"The plane is an EF2000 Typhoon class. The helicopter is a Griffin class. Now since we can't very well let you fly it alone, we're sending another trainee with you from the Raven Wing."

"What? I thought girls and boys trained separate?"

"Well it turns out that one of the girls got the same base as you. Don't worry about that. She's only going to be your co-pilot. Other than that you'll be in separate quarters."

"Is that why I have two aircraft?"

"One of them is yours. The other is hers. You happen to have the highest potential for flying, which is why you have both. The Griffin is Angel's once you reach the base."

Since Leon had to finish the transfer paperwork, Harry was dismissed. Sirius decided to help him pack, since he wouldn't be able to see his godson for a few months.

The little bag on the bracelet turned out to be a infinite bag. Which made packing a lot easier.

Sirius secretly packed several potions (brewed by Snape himself once he heard about the transfer), several books on the restricted list by the Ministry (including one he wrote with James years ago on Animagi transformations), and a mirror. He would have given it to him last year, but Harry wasn't allowed to bring his Christmas presents back with him to the base.

He told Harry about the Mirror and the other items, but not about the pranks he personally made with the twins. He couldn't get into trouble if he didn't know they were there now could he?

Harry, once he found out about the fact that any food put in the bad stayed in the same state as when he put it in had an inspiration.

He went to the store and had Sirius freeze twenty large packs of small water bottles and put them in the bag. Now he would have cold water whenever he wanted. He also put in fresh ingredients so he could cook food when the grub served at the base got to be too much.

Since he was going to a place where it was a hundred degrees in the shade, he firmly told Hedwig to stay with Sirius.

Hedwig gave her nestling a questioning look.

"Look girl, the base where I'm going is going to be very hot. And while I know you can stand the cold, I don't want to chance you getting a heat stroke while I'm away. So please...keep an eye on Sirius for me?"

Hedwig understood her nestling's concern. Sirius was cooped up in this depressing house. It was more than enough for Sirius to do something stupid that could get him killed. And Hedwig always had a sixth sense for when her nestling was going to do something reckless and stupid.

So she hooted and landed on Sirius. He seemed to take the hint as he said "Hey! I'm not _that_ reckless!"

Harry smirked.

"Could have fooled me."

Which prompted a wrestling match in the living room which the twins quickly joined in along with Remus. Fred and George had taken to living with Sirius and Remus once their mother found out that they opened the joke shop without her knowing.

Molly Weasly was currently on the warpath.

* * *

Harry checked the gauges for any abnormalities while Angel did a pre-flight check. They would be flying many hours to Qatar without any instructors around, and Harry wanted to make sure they got there in one piece. Inside the back was their standard issue packs for the desert, along with one odd addition that Leon reluctantly agreed to.

Since Hedwig was definitely _not _allowed on the base because she had a higher chance for heat stroke, Harry had gone into Diagon with her to pick out another owl.

(He _had_ to bring her along, since once he got back the two would be sharing a post and he wanted to make sure she didn't kill the new owl.)

This one was still an owlet, or baby owl. She couldn't fly just yet, but she was much more suited to flying in the heat.

Harry had named her Gylfie after the movie he saw the day before. According to the clerk Gylfie was an elf owl. She had all the standard spells that enabled the owl post to work. The only thing he would have to do is train her to fly long distances.

His main relief about the tiny bird was that she was _nothing _like Pigwidgeon.

"All sensors are in the clear," announced Angel.

Harry double checked each reading, and started the launch. Leon had given both of them the papers that signified that they were trainees. They had to give those to the man in charge of the base once they landed. Harry had also been given the locations of all the fuel stations in the route, just in case.

"System is all clear. We are a go for launch," said Harry over the intercom.

_And to think, last year I was stuck at the Dursleys with no options..._

"Copy that Prongs and Aki, you are clear for take off," said Leon, "And good luck."

Harry carefully lifted the lever and the copter took off. It was a controlled flight, with no bumps. Somehow he knew Leon and the other captains were silently grading their take off. Once they reached a high enough altitude, they began heading in the direction of the base.

They had been in the air for fifteen minutes when Angel finally spoke.

"That was sure nerve-racking, wasn't it?" she said over the intercom.

"Oh, that was the easy part. Now we have to find the base and land, remember?" said Harry with humor.

Angel snickered.

They made good time to Qatar, as they reached the base around evening.

"_This is Trainee Prongs and Akidoshi."_

"Land on the designated area and present your I.D.," said the Commander.

Harry carefully landed the helicopter and powered down. They got out and presented their official I.D.

"James, you're with Captain Lennox. Angel, you're with Captain Anne. You'll follow their orders unless I tell you otherwise."

"So you're the new guy? Aren't you a bit young for the army?"

"Technically I'm in the British version of your Air Force," said Harry.

"How old are you?"

"I turn sixteen at the end of July. Why else would I be doing survival training?"

Lennox decided to forget about the fact that a fifteen year old was in the military. Instead he opted to show James around the base, so he wouldn't get lost. And it took him a good hour to finally note that yes, there was a small bird on his shoulder.

"Why do you have a bird on your shoulder?"

"Hm? Oh, Glyfie. We were allowed one personal item to take with us, and my other owl wasn't suited for desert life. So I decided to buy this one to keep me company."

"You...own two owls."

"One is a Snow Owl, and this one is an Elf owl."

"Do I even want to know?" Lennox said bored.

"Not unless you want a headache inducing question to come to you," joked Harry.

"Did you...did you just make a joke?" asked Lennox surprised.

"Maybe."

He actually looked relieved. Clearly he assumed that Harry was from a strict military family for him to have joined so young.

"I also prank people too," grinned Harry.

Lennox grinned back.

"Okay boys, we have a new recruit. This is James Black. James, this is Epps, Figg..."

* * *

It took less than a month before Harry grew bored enough with the base that he pranked someone. That someone happened to be Epps.

Lennox, while impressed with the ingenuity of the prank, had to give Harry something to do as punishment. That something was peeling potatoes and cooking dinner for the _entire_ base.

(Two hours later...)

Lennox walked into the tent where he left James and stared. James was sitting down reading a book while four large pots of potatoes boiled. Next to the pots were four large turkeys, three hams and five large game hens. Each were seasoned and the only thing which had longer to cook were the turkeys.

"How...?"

"How did I find all this good food?"

Lennox was speechless as to _how _James not only found all this food, but had learned to cook and cook well. (That, and how he managed to peel and cut over five _hundred_ potatoes in less than two hours...)

James looked up from his book, grinning.

"That...is a secret. Besides, my aunt wasn't the most pleasant person to be around. I was the one who cooked all the food in the house when I was old enough to reach the stove."

By the time the call for dinner came out, everyone was very surprised by the change of food. More so that it had been one of their British recruits who had done it.

* * *

Harry crept among the sand dunes. According to their intel, there were insurgents waiting to ambush the next supply plane. If they succeeded, they would have military grade weapons to use on American forces.

_There!_

Harry saw the glare of a lens from twelve feet away. He lightly touched the comm unit on his ear.

"Lennox. What's your twenty?"

"_Dude...you have watched way to many military movies. And we're about five feet away from you on the left."_

"In that case...the guys we're looking for is twelve feet in front of me."

"_I can't see 'em."_

Harry had an idea.

'Gylfie!' he hissed.

His little elf owl had taken to training well. When he called her, she came. And all he had to do was point to an odd bump and she circled.

Glyfie let out a cry and took flight. She was high up enough to mistaken for a desert hawk, while at the same time alerting Lennox and the others as to where the target was.

"_Remind me never to complain about your pet owl again,"_ said Lennox as they closed in.

Harry grinned. He had gotten more than one weird look because he owned owls. But aside from the odd looks, no one complained about her for one reason.

She kept the scorpion population down.

Hedwig on the other hand, got more than odd looks. Not only was she big, white and feathered, but she also tended to stick on Harry the entire time.

On the plus side, she taught Glyfie how to fly and take letters. So Harry let her stay long enough to write Sirius and Remus back. She came once a month, always staying for three days at a time.

* * *

Harry was excited. This was his first trip to the small off-duty area of the base. He usually spent his days off reading or training Glyfie.

But today Lennox, Epps and Figg were dragging him there. He usually avoided the area because of the alcohol. (And even then only because he was underage.)

"I told you guys before, I don't want to dance!" whined Harry.

"Tough. You're fifteen, you're on one of the hottest bases in the world, and you spend way too much time by yourself. You are going to the dance hall Jamesie," said Lennox with a smirk.

"And what's stopping me from having Glyfie attack you?" asked Harry, amused.

"I'm your commanding officer and could have you washing everyone's laundry for a week?" answered Lennox.

"I have been through worse hell than doing laundry and the water would cool me off," countered Harry with a smirk.

"Peeling potatoes?"

"Everyone _loves_ my cooking."

"Cleaning the windows of every jet and plane here?"

"Same problem with the laundry champ."

"Cleaning everyone's guns."

"I would have them done in three hours."

"Debugging the computers."

"In the A/C and everyone would blame you when all the lines crash from being in close proximity with me. Face it Lennox, you can't win for losing with me," grinned Harry.

Epps and Figg laughed at him.

An idea came to Lennox and he smirked.

"You would have to deal with Figg speaking in a language you don't understand for five hours."

Harry laughed.

"Hey Figg, mind teaching me Spanish?"

The other two groaned. Figg had an irritating habit when he was vexed. He always switched back to his birth tongue of Spanish, which almost no one else spoke on the base.

It was one of his more irritating traits.

Once he got there, it was clear Harry was a wallflower.

"Come on James, you can't be that bad with the girls," said Epps.

"Oh, it's not my ability to talk to girls that is bad...it's just my luck. Hell, there was a school dance once and beside the required waltz I stayed in the shadows the entire time. My date had to go with another guy!"

"So basically you're just shy."

"I have horrendous luck and have never had a girlfriend. What do _you_ think?" said Harry annoyed.

Harry wasn't the only wallflower in the club. Angel was talking to Anne, and neither made a move to the dance floor. So, taking the opportunity at hand, Lennox shoved Harry towards the girls.

"What the 'ell Lennox?" growled Anne. She had an odd accent.

"Jamesie needs to quit being a wallflower, Annie."

Her resulting growl from that nickname sounded disturbingly like Sirius or Remus when angry. It was that of a dog.

"For the last time, _Major_ Lennox, if you must give me a nickname, call me Sakura. I hate Miranda and Annie!"

"Sorry Sergeant. But maybe you could work some of your magic to help Jamesie?"

She glared at him and he backed off.

"Your real name?" she asked Harry.

"Harry."

"As in that who boy-who-lived crap? You aren't the same kid who owns that little owl are you?"

"Glyfie."

The sergeant grinned at him.

"After that movie called the _Legend of the Guardians, the Owls of Ga'hoole_?"

"That's the one."

"Good movie. Alright, so why are you in a dance hall when you don't want to dance?"

"Lennox and the others dragged me here, and I didn't feel like yelling for Glyfie?"

Anne laughed.

"Then how about we find something more interesting to do?"

"Like what?"

"There are a few officers holding a poker tournament in an hour..."

"I'm in!"

Lennox showed up halfway through and ended up cursing Harry out. Once again, the boy-who-lived was known throughout the base as the 'boy to beat at poker'. It also got Lennox, Figg and Epps off his case to spend time with the other soldiers, since whenever he wasn't reading, taking care of Glyfie or his plane he was out playing cards or basketball with the others.

* * *

He was actually having fun while away from England. Which was good, because the reports he was getting from Sirius, Remus and the twins wasn't as good.

In fact it was downright hard to read.

The casualties had begun to pile up. Fifteen Aurors, four Healers, and five Order members had been killed in the past three months. Fudge was trying to convince himself he had it all under control, but the truth was obvious even to the first years at Hogwarts.

Voldemort was back, and he wasn't going to stop until he was killed. Dumbledore was losing his grip on the school as well. Once word spread of where Harry Potter had really disappeared to, students began to change their career options very quickly. The twins secretly began to spread how well the boy-who-lived did as a pilot and a wizard, and the Royal Air Force suddenly got a boost in membership.

Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Seamus Finnegan, Dean Thomas, Luna Lovegood, Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Blaise Zabini, and Theodore Nott all joined the Royal Air Force within a month of the truth getting out. Rumor had it that the twins were planning on running their joke business on the side while they applied for two years.

While that meant they would be better prepared to handle whatever came their way, it also meant that Dumbledore was steadily losing his pawns. And he was infuriated by that fact.

* * *

He was up in the clouds, doing a basic reconnaissance mission. He wasn't allowed to engage _anyone_ without being fired upon first. Which was fine by him.

He still sucked at shooting things midair. Angel was flying in the opposite direction, checking for anyone stranded in the desert. She had progressed quickly in the training.

Suddenly he banked to the left. Surely he hadn't seen what he thought he did?

_There!_

Someone was stranded. He was waving frantically for him to land, which was impossible. From what it appeared, the guy had taken a wrong turn while he was heading to the nearest village and had gotten stranded.

But Harry knew better that not everything was as it seemed.

He banked low to the right and scouted the area nearby. Something did _not_ feel right about this. The man was clearly a local, and there hadn't been a storm recently. Why was he out here alone with no water bottle? The nearest oasis was nearly three miles away!

Harry kept his eyes open, trying to figure out what was wrong. He wasn't going to land if he didn't have to. Not unless he knew what the hell was going on.

It was the glint that caught his attention scant moments before he realized there a gun close the man's right hand.

The stranded local act was good. Too good in fact. Harry reached for his omniculars that he had kept with him from the Quidditch World Cup.

Using the magical binoculars, he spotted something he wouldn't have seen otherwise.

The man had a bomb strapped to his chest. There was no way in hell he was going to fall for that one!

"Base, this is Prongs. I have what appears to be a suicide bomber ten clicks from the base. He's trying to act like a stranded local. Over."

"_Prongs, how sure are you about that bomb? Over."_

"I happened to notice something was off and used my binoculars. I think I can tell a bomb when I see one."

"_We're sending Lennox and his team now. Keep circling so they can see you. Over."_

"Copy that, base."

Ten minutes later Lennox and his group drove closer to the local. Without warning the man reached into his robe and began to pull something. Harry didn't think twice. He _liked_ Lennox and the others.

Before the cord could be fully pulled and Lennox reached the blast zone, Harry shot a single round from his gun. Much to his shock, the bullet managed to kill the suicide bomber.

Lennox reached the now dead man. He checked the man's robes and discovered a very nasty claymore bomb that had enough C-4 to have killed the team if Harry hadn't shot him down from the air in time.

Then Lennox noted something upsetting. The bomb was still active.

"_Hey Prongs, can you detonate this bomb for us? If we don't do something with this it'll blow up some poor shmuck."_

"I'll see if I can blow it up from here. But not until I know for sure you lot are far enough from the blast zone. Am I clear?"

Lennox drove the others at least two miles away from the blast zone. Once he was far enough Harry shot one of his bullets at the bomb.

The blast was deafening. They heard it clear to the base.

"_What the bloody 'ell was that? What the 'ell are you doing out there Jamesie?"_ Anne was shrieking over the intercom.

Apparently the sentiment was shared by the Commander, because he wanted to know as well.

"_Prongs, what the hell is going on out there?"_

Lennox decided to step in and save Harry's poor abused eardrums.

"_Sir, Prongs found a suicide bomber heading to the base. The guy had a claymore with enough C-4 to take it out. We had to detonate it before someone else did."_

Much to their surprise, the combined voices of Anne and the Commander came through loud and clear on their next order.

_"A little warning would be appreciated next time!"_

* * *

Harry honestly had no idea it could get cold in the desert. But cold it was. And according to the others it can and _would_ get colder by the time Christmas rolled around. Since he and Angel had spent Thanksgiving** practicing hand to hand combat (and getting a new belt to signify their advancement to the next level in at least two different styles of martial arts combat) they were going to enjoy Christmas.

Rumor had it someone was flying in trees, lights, even real fireworks. No one knew who it was, only that it was going to be a good year.

Of course Harry had the biggest surprise that year.

The pilot of the supply plane landed carefully. Inside the soldiers came out with large boxes, some of the crates were heavier than others. Lennox and the others helped carry the trees out, which looked none the worse for wear.

But it was the pilots that had Harry's attention.

"_Sirius? Neville?"_

Sirius took off the helmet and grinned at his godson. Neville had definitely changed since Harry last saw him.

Before the boy had been a wreck, always nervous and fearful, but a true Lion at heart. Now he was confident and calm. He had also bulked up in the muscle department.

"Jamesie! How smashing to see you!" grinned Sirius.

Neville smiled at his former dormmate.

"Gran said I could join early if I wanted. And I asked to be assigned here where I had someone around that I knew."

Harry grinned widely.

"You two any good at poker?"

It turned out Sirius had _been _in the Royal Air Force when he graduated Hogwarts with James. They accepted his wish to rejoin and allowed him to be stationed in Qatar with the new recruit. The fact that Harry happened to be their best pilot didn't hurt either.

It was the best Christmas he had ever spent. Sirius was with him, and the two set off enough Filibuster's fireworks to convince the locals they were setting off missiles. Everyone loved those. Between the partying and the games, it was a blast. The war they were there to fight was a distant memory for one night. And the presents sent by their families brought tears to several of their eyes.

By New Years everyone was resigned to getting back to work. With the addition of the newest recruit, it was clear that James and Neville were slowly changing things around the base.

Neville quickly gravitated to the medical tents, where his knowledge of local medicinal plants proved to be a boon. With his natural affinity for anything that grew in the ground, he shortened the length of time spent in the hospital beds.

James was clearly the man to beat at card games, and his flying was extraordinary. Even if he couldn't shoot worth a damn. Because of that slight flaw, he was the poster boy for the pilots. He did all his own maintenance.

* * *

Things were going great for him. He had friends he could rely on, the war between him and the darker side of the magical community was a memory, and he was slowly losing his shy personality around females his own age.

Much to the surprise of Harry and Neville, there was a joint birthday party for the both of them. Word had got around as to _when_ their birthdays were.

(Harry blamed Sirius for spreading the truth around. He was going to hex his godfather the next time he saw him!)

Angel and Anne's birthdays had come and gone two months before. And unfortunately for the sanity of the menfolk, Anne was rubbing off on the once quiet girl from England.

Angel had been a calm and quiet personality who preferred to spend her off time either drawing or playing one of the few computers put aside for gamers.

Ever since meeting Anne (who had taken the girl under her wing), she had come out of her shell. The two were often seen plotting one prank or another on the men...who often complained that they couldn't do anything back because of Anne's rank.

Lennox was not one of those people, because rank or no, he still pranked them back. It was often a source of betting as to who would one up the other.

In that regard, Anne was definitely in the lead.

Aside from the minor embarrassment he had at the party, Harry rather enjoyed himself.

He even had a bit of joy as Hedwig was there as well, delivering his presents...mostly in the form of books. She stayed for a full week, and he knew he made the right decision keeping her with Sirius. Hedwig was started to look unwell from the heat.

She soon left with letters for everyone he cared about. Remus, the twins, Hermione, Sirius, and even Ron. Only four of those bothered to answer his letters.

* * *

***I mistook the name of the name of the Air Force in Britain. I will fix the name when I update the fic. **

****I have been informed by my readers that they do not have a Thanksgiving holiday over in Europe, sorry about that mistake.**


	3. Chapter 3

Harry looked at the date. It had almost been a year since he came to Qatar, and he was due a vacation back home soon. Not to mention his Hogwarts owl was going to be cross with him for having to come all the way to the Middle East.

Not that he cared.

Lennox, Fig and Epps were coming back from another run in the desert, which he had narrowly escaped because Anne had requested him for a few hours.

They dropped their gear without a word, and prepared to cool off. Lennox went to speak to his wife, while Harry was checking on his jet. It needed to be refueled before he went on another mission.

He finished his refueling, and on a whim put the jet back on his bracelet. It wasn't like he was going to need it anytime soon.

That was when he heard the sound of an inbound helicopter. And it wasn't one he was familiar with.

He went to the tent where Epps was and asked "Who's coming in?"

"There wasn't anybody scheduled to come in today or tomorrow. Might be someone who's lost."

He shook his head.

"I don't think so. Two Raptors were dispatched to escort him in," said Harry. Glyfie landed on his shoulder, and she looked concerned.

"When are you supposed to head back?"

"Two more days. And knowing my luck, the Commander is going to have me up to my ears in work tomorrow. Might as well pack now while I have the chance."

Fig laughed at the truth of that.

* * *

Harry had finished putting the last of his things up when he heard an odd noise nearby. He paused, and knew he wasn't mistaken.

It was the sound of gears grinding. But it wasn't like any he had heard before.

An explosion rocked him as he heard Epps yelled about the antenna farm being taken out.

Harry popped his head out in time to see something that would haunt him for days.

It was large, metal and humanoid in appearance. It had glowing blue eyes that seemed to pierce the soul of any who looked at it. But it was the aura he felt coming off it that bothered Harry the most.

It was tainted, evil. He quickly grabbed his bag and whistled for Glyfie.

The little owl did as he trained her to. She flew to his shoulder and waited for instructions. Like Hedwig, Glyfie was a smart owl. She could understand human speech and adore her master unconditionally.

Harry ran to Lennox and the others, and kept the local boy out of the way.

"What the hell? Where did that _thing_ come from?" yelled Harry as they began to run.

"Hell if I know! That thing just stood up and attacked the antenna farm without warning!" Epps yelled back.

Harry spotted Neville and whistled loudly enough for the boy to hear him. It didn't take long for his friend to catch up with them.

"What's going on?" asked Neville.

"Two words: tactical retreat!" answered Harry.

"What?"

"We don't know _what_ that thing is, _where _it comes from, or _why_ it's attacking. Best to regroup and form a plan."

"Got it."

* * *

They ran over the sand carefully, making sure not to slip too much and break their leg. Glyfie silently patrolled in front of them, calling out warnings when needed. Every once in a while she would dive down and fly up with a fat, dead scorpion.

Finally, when they were at least five miles from the base, Lennox called a break.

They had been tired at the end of the flight back to base, and the running from whatever that thing was hadn't helped. His men were exhausted, thirsty, and ill-prepared for desert survival. Well, most of them were.

Neville and James were the only ones who seemed fine, but then again they had been on base all day. They hadn't gone out on patrol that morning.

"I am dying of thirst. Anyone have any water?" asked one of the soldiers.

Three of them shook their heads. The local kid Lennox saved had left his water pouch behind when the base was attacked. Fig and Epps were unable to grab theirs, and Neville had been in the process of refilling his when the thing attacked.

"Tap or bottled?" asked James. Ten pairs of eyes stared at him.

"What do you mean, tap or bottled?" asked Fig.

James pulled out something that had their jaws drop in disbelief. Inside his bag was a large amount of water, and _cold_ water at that! From the looks of the bottles, only half had even been opened. Seeing the looks on their faces, he shrugged.

"I've only gone through three quarters of the frozen bottles that I brought with me from England. I just refilled them whenever I used them up."

"I always wondered why you never complained about the lack of water Jamesie," said Lennox once he got over the shock.

James handed everyone a cold bottle and they drank greedily. Once they had rested, they decided to make for the nearest village to call for help.

* * *

It was hours before Lennox called for a break. They had been walking without pause for three hours in over a hundred degree weather.

They were nearly halfway to the village. Fortunately they had a place to rest...and it happened to be an abandoned tank.

Epps attempted to use the radio again, and felt like throwing it away in disgust.

"Our radio is fried. We've got no communication with aerial."

Harry tried his own radio. His was better protected against attack. Had to be, since magic tended to interfere with technology on a regular basis.

It was a miracle he could _fly_ a plane at all with the amount of magic he had.

Whatever had ruined Epps' radio had ruined his own, which was puzzling. The only thing he knew which could ruin one of the Magically Enhanced radios that anyone with magic was given was...

"I don't believe it. That thing must have used a localized EMP burst."

"What makes you say that?"

"My radio is protected against normal interference. The only thing I can think of that could ruin mine is an EMP."

"What the hell is an EMP?" asked Lennox.

"EMP. Electro-Magnetic Pulse. It is sometimes caused by a nuclear bomb going off."

"Great...so that thing had a nuke in him. That's just great."

"It can also be created by certain devices."

Lennox decided to give up on the idea and turned to the kid he had rescued.

"Mahfouz. How far do you live from here?"

"Not far. Just over that mountain."

"Great...climbing," said Harry with a groan.

Neville stood by his friend and said in a low voice, "I would ask if we could use brooms, but since our friends are mundanes..."

"Yeah, not the best of ideas," agreed Harry.

Lennox asked if they had a phone, and finding out they did only solidified their original intent on the village.

They got up after everyone was rested, and began walking towards the mountains.

Neville noted that there was a certain charm on Harry's bracelet.

"Is that...?"

"Yeah. I was refueling when the base was hit. I figured since I only had two or three days left I put it back on the bracelet. I was packing my stuff early just in case when that thing hit us."

"I was in the medical tent binding a broken arm when it hit."

They began the long walk up the mountain, and Harry was not looking forward to the climb. The only thing he had to look forward to was the view he would see once he reached the crest.

"Wow...what a view. Almost makes staying in hundred degree weather worth it."

Epps grinned at him.

"Almost?"

"Hey, do _you _enjoy this heat?"

Silence met his question. His grin widened.

"I thought so."

"Let's hope this phone line works," said Lennox.

Harry couldn't agree more. He thought phones were useful, but he never carried one himself. Too much hassle.

Then he stopped. Something didn't feel right. Slowly he drew his wand from the holster he had on his right arm. If the thing that attacked the base could survive bullets without a scratch, then maybe magic could do something.

Next to him Neville drew his own wand. Harry noted with interest that he finally quit using the old wand he had in school.

"Head's up!" yelled Epps, and Harry didn't think twice as he yelled "_Bombarda_!"

The thing that attacked them was thrown back a good foot, but it recovered quickly enough.

The thing dove under the sand, and Lennox called for quiet. Harry sensed the thing was about to attack again, and said quietly "_Point me scorpion."_

The wand jerked in a certain direction and Harry frantically remembered a spell he had read in a book Sirius had packed. It was called _Fiend Fyre_.

Before the thing could pop back out, Harry cast the spell without hesitating. He saved a man from being impaled by a nasty spike on the scorpion creature's tail.

They all heard the most frightening screech from the creature. Harry would never forget that sound.

"Nev! This thing is vulnerable to extreme heat!"

Neville promptly aimed his wand and yelled loudly_ "Incendio Maxima!"_

The robot scorpion screeched louder as the flames hit it dead on.

Between Neville and Harry, the scorpion was kept at bay long enough for them to reach the village. Lennox took the kid to his father, while everyone else dealt with the robot.

Harry could heard Lennox yelling at the cell phone. He held back a snicker as he mentioned a credit card.

In one smooth motion he found his wallet and yelled "Major Lennox, over here!"

Lennox took the card and read off the numbers. It didn't take long after that for them to reach the Pentagon.

"Epps, phone!"

Harry noticed that the scorpion shot something in Fig's direction. A loud explosion came next, and he heard the distinct sound of Fig screaming in pain.

It took less than a minute for Harry to reach Fig. He was bleeding pretty bad.

"Neville! Get your arse over here now!"

Neville heard his voice, and ran to Fig. Harry had kept pressure on his wound. He heard the distinct sound of something flying close to their location and looked up.

It was one of those unmanned aircraft that the Americans used to spy without risking their people.

Harry knew full well Neville could handle most wounds, having been patched up by his friend before. So he yelled to Lennox "Lennox, tell them this thing reacts to extreme heat! Regular bullets won't cut it!"

Lennox heard him, and relayed the information.

"Just hang in there Fig. Who else is going to help me feed barbequed gators to Epps?"

Harry kept talking to the man while Neville did his best.

"Harry, this guy needs medical care. Do you have any blood replenishers?"

"Nev, just tell me what you need and I'll hand it to you. I have a full stock of potions."

Neville told him everything he needed, and Harry handed it to him without question. Fig grimaced at the taste, but he took the potions without complaint. Harry looked up when he heard more jets fly overhead. The loud sound of the turrets on the largest one was dampened by the sound of the engines.

"Spooky 3-2 use 1-0-5 rounds. Bring the rain."

The sound of the turret changed, as they began to shoot rounds designed to destroy tanks from afar. Fig's breathing was evening out. Neville had lost his worried look.

"He'll have to stay in a bed for a few days, but he'll live."

"Where's Fig?" asked Lennox.

"Over here. Neville got to him in time."

Lennox recognized the type of wound Fig had and practically shrieked at him.

"What the hell are you talking about? He should be bleeding heavily from that wound!"

"Infection shouldn't set in, not with the stuff I gave him. And the bleeding should stop in five minutes. Right now what he needs is to rest and let the medicine do it's work," said Neville firmly.

"What the hell did you two feed him?" asked Epps.

"How about we answer that on the way to the nearest base?" suggested Harry tiredly.

They lifted Fig up and took him to the chopper. Harry and Neville stayed by his side the entire time, and Harry watched with both pride and relief as Neville clearly told them what he had done and how he did it. The people had apparently been around Healers before, because they nodded and took it in stride.

"You'll be fine Fig. Let us know when you get out, okay?" said Harry.

Fig nodded and gave him a thumbs up. The potions had taken effect by now, and his wounds were starting to heal up quickly.

* * *

Harry noted with interest that Lennox picked up the piece of tail that the sabot rounds had burned off.

"Alright, what's the deal with you two? You shot off fire and managed to heal over a wound that could have put Fig in intensive care for months."

Harry quirked a grin.

"Back in the old days, when men beat stick on the ground and cursed, they called it witchcraft. These days they call it golf."

Lennox snickered.

"But seriously, we can use magic," said Neville.

"What?"

"Neville and I are wizards. We used to go to school together to learn magic. Neville is learning to be what's called a Healer through field training."

"Healer?"

"Our version of doctors. But instead of manufactured pills, we use potions that we brew...though Neville can't brew anything."

"Is it my fault every time I get near a cauldron it explodes?" whined Neville from up front.

"It's a good thing they accept people who learn in battlefield medical, huh Nev?"

"Yeah."

"Snape still terrify you?"

"Not since I joined, no. I have found there are scarier things than Snape."

"Like what?"

"Robotic scorpions from hell?" said Neville with a grin.

"Anyone else completely lost?" asked Lennox.

Every American nodded their head. Harry just grinned.

"That reminds me. I should get Nightfire outfitted with sabot rounds. Something tells me that we're going to run into that helicopter thing again."

"Nightfire?" asked Epps.

"Hey, I happen to like my jet. And since I have it on me, I think I should take the next chance I get to equip it."

"Wait...how do you have your plane on you right now?"

Harry held up his bracelet. On it was the usual charms that everyone ignored.

A helmet, parachute, small bag, a smaller version of Glyfie's post where she sat, a small little vial thing, and what appeared to be a small plane.

"Wait, where did that plane one come from?" asked Epps.

"The plane is a smaller version of my jet. Certain pilots rate high enough that they are allowed to receive a jet that has been modified to become a charm that they can carry around with them."

That mind boggling concept had Harry explaining why he was even in Royal Air Force in the first place. Meanwhile a few of the other soldiers took the opportunity to check out the tail Lennox recovered.

* * *

They landed on the base, and Harry promptly had his jet outfitted with the only thing that seemed to work on those robotic monsters. Aside from having to get it approved by Leon and the State Department, it went smoothly.

They were on the next plane stateside within three hours.

"So to sum it up, your real name is Harry Potter," started Lennox.

"Yup. James is my middle name."

"And you joined the Royal Air Force to get away from a plot to control your life by an old man who runs a magic school," continued Epps.

"Pretty much. When Neville and some of the other guys I know heard about the Royal Air Force, they joined too."

"And the only reason you're even in this situation is because you're too young to be in the Officer's academy. Did we get that right?" finished Lennox.

"Yup. Save problem with Neville. He's too young to take his Nastily Excruciating Wizarding Tests. Also called NEWTs. And don't ask me why they call them that."

"I'm getting a headache..." said Lennox.

He scowled when Harry handed him a small vial.

"It's to relieve pain."

"So where does this leave us?"

"The same place as before. I don't really care if you guys still call me Jamesie, by the way. But we have more pressing problems than the fact that I was going by another name and happen to have magic."

"Like what?" snapped Epps.

"Those robots. I seriously doubt that the helicopter and scorpion are the only ones here. I mean, why would they attack our base? Out of all the places they could have hit, why there?"

"You have a point."

"I think they were looking for something. The question is, what were they looking for and what does the military have to do with it?"

"I don't know."

Some of the guys had the tail on the table. One of the people who was looking at it said "It's like a self-regenerating molecular armor."

"Look at the scorch mark where the sabot round hit. Melted right through," said Lennox as he turned to Epps, "Hey aren't sabot hot-loaded for, like, a 6,000-degree magnesium burn?"

"Close to it. It melts tank armor."

"So this metal skin must react to extreme heat."

"It might also react to extreme cold too," said Harry.

The thing suddenly began to move without warning.

"Head's up!"

"Woah!"

The tip of the tail impaled itself into the table. When it was flat, Harry and the others strapped it down firmly.

"I thought you said that thing was dead man!" said Epps in disbelief.

"This thing is wicked," said Neville.

"Alright get on the horn with Norther Command. Tell them that our effective weapon is high-heat sabot rounds. Recommend we load them on all the gunships. Go," said Lennox.

* * *

As Neville and Harry sat down, the events of the past three days seemed to come crashing down on them. Neville was about to fall asleep when he noticed a familiar face on a small bed in the back.

"Angel? Anne?"

Harry turned to the girls who had been asleep until they heard Neville call their names.

"I hate Decepticons," growled Anne.

"Decepti-what?" said Harry.

"Seriously? You've never seen cartoons called Transformers? Decepticons vs. Autobots?" said Anne incredulous. (Was a total cartoon and comic fan.)

"What's it about?" asked Neville.

"Basically there are two sides. There's the Decepticons, which are the bad guys who want to destroy all humans and turn all the machines in the world into their own army. Then there are the Autobots, which are the good guys. They tend to ally themselves with a select group of humans and basically try to stop the other guys."

"Who are the leaders?" asked Harry, interested.

"The main Decepticon is Megatron. Who from what I can tell is a mecha version of that tosser in Europe Moldy-shorts. The other boy is Optimus Prime."

"Wait, did you say robot version of Voldemort?" said Harry with growing dread.

"Yeah, that is the best description I could think of. Why?" asked Anne curious.

"I bet you guys twenty galleons we'll have to face him very soon. And that he will somehow come back to life to be a pain in the arse."

"Twenty galleons that we face Megatron and if he's killed he comes back? You are on!" said Angel with a grin.

* * *

Since it would take them a good ten hours to reach the States, everyone decided to take a nap, if they could. Angel, Neville, and Anne fell straight asleep. Harry on the other hand, decided to check on his owl and read for a bit first.

Glyfie wasn't too happy about being stuck in a plane again. Even one as spacious as the one they were in. Once Harry gave her an owl treat, she took a long nap on his shoulder while he read. The book he was reading was on Animagi training.

He closed his eyes and counted slowly to ten. As he counted, he felt himself distance his mind from his body. He slowly opened his eyes to see a blurry shape in front of him. Instead of focusing on it, he allowed it to reveal itself.

It was lupine in origin, and pure black. The eyes were calm, cool and as green as jade. On the chest was a long stripe of silver that went down to the underside of the tail. The paws were what drew his attention though. The paws had silver-blue flames that enveloped the creature.

Harry felt someone shaking him and opened his eyes to see Anne.

"We land in an hour."

He nodded, and stretched his legs which had fallen asleep. He could feel the plane beginning it's descent, and once he regained his ability to walk, he grabbed his gear. Most of it was stored in the bracelet, but he had a few items he carried with him.

Namely his gun.

* * *

Lennox and Epps were the last to get off the plane when a car drove up to them. A man got out and ran to the team, saying, "Captain Lennox, we need you and your team to come with us right now!"

Harry mock scowled as he said "And here I was hoping to enjoy my first visit to the States."

The team laughed, and it effectively lightened the mood a little.

"Let's go!"

They followed the man in the suit, though clearly _no one _was happy about it. Soon they were on another helicopter to a location none of them had been to before.

They all lined up like good soldiers, and saluted when prompted.

"At ease. Captain, Sergeant. Got your intel. Excellent work," said the Secretary of Defense.

"Thank you sir. What about the gunships?" asked Lennox.

"They're being retrofitted with sabot rounds now. If they hit us again we'll be ready for them. But it won't do us much good if we can't get world communications back up."

Harry decided to speak up.

"Is it only the electronic communications that are interrupted?" he asked.

"So far, yes. Why?"

"Have you considered asking for help from the magical services? I seriously doubt a virus would shut those down."

"We would need someone with clearance to authorize that."

"I'll do it sir," said Anne.

"And you are?"

"Special Mage Corps division 13, Sergeant Anne Denise, sir."

"What do you need, Sergeant?"

"Just need a place to set up the mirror-way sir."

* * *

She was promptly shown an area where she could work in peace, and everyone else was taken to see their enemy, NBE1 A.K.A. Megatron himself.

"_This is Mage Division 13, requesting use for the comm lines for Civilians."_

"_Passcodes?'_

"_Merlin, Andromeda, Necromancer, Andromeda, Lupine, Lupine."_

"_Please hold. Passcode confirmed. Civilian access will be set up within fifteen minutes. Codeword is Destruction."_

Anne went to the Keller and told him the password to activate the mirror-way comm lines. There were magic users in every base, and they all had access to the mirror-way phones. It would be through those mirrors that the orders would be received world-wide.

* * *

"All right, here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs," said Simmons.

"NBEs?" asked Epps.

"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try to keep up with the acronyms."

"What you're about to see is totally classified."

"As opposed to what? Half-classified?" asked Harry jokingly. Angel and Neville snickered.

"Dear God. What is this?"

"We think when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed into the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934."

"We call him NBE One."

"Seriously? You couldn't come up with something more original?" asked Angel.

"Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you knot, but, I mean, that's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons."

"He's been in cryostasis since 1935. Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind."

"Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him. NBE One. That's what we call it."

"And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?"

"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security."

"Well you got one now," said Keller annoyed.

"So why Earth?" asked Lennox.

"It's the All-Spark," answered Sam.

"What is that?"

"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing. Anyway Mr. NBE One here, AKA Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's their plan."

"For the love of... Does it really matter what the hell you call him? No matter how you look at things, you have a big arse robot bent on destroying humanity buried in a basement that is totally dependent on generators that can fail at any time," said Harry crossly.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Simmons.

"Yeah. You guys know where it is, don't you?"

"Bloody hell. Don't tell me you lot were stupid enough to put the giant evil robot in the same place as this Cube that they're looking for!" said Harry in growing horror. Seeing the looks that passed between the techs, he cursed.

"Follow me."

Harry looked at the robot again and turned to Neville and the others.

"You guys now owe me twenty galleons. Each."

The paled, and realized he wasn't joking about the bet they made. As they walked both reached into their bags and handed over the gold coins without a word.

"Harry, I never really believed your luck was this bad," said Neville.

"Yeah, well I've learned to take this crap one step at a time."

Neville chuckled. The entire _school_ had heard of his yearly adventures.

"You're about to see our crown jewel."

Harry looked at the giant cube in amazement and disbelief.

"So let me get this straight. You blokes brought that giant robot all the way from the Arctic Circle where he was _safely_ imprisoned in ice to the Hoover Dam, where he could thaw very quickly if the generators failed. Are you out of your minds?" asked Anne.

Harry looked at Lennox and asked "Is Alaska still a US territory?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Wouldn't it have made more sense to ship the frozen robot _there_ where the ice would have kept him cold instead of here where it's above freezing?"

Several pairs of eyes turned to the S Seven agents in question.

Simmons coughed as he said "We couldn't afford it."

Harry snorted.

"You're joking right? You are a part of a secret branch of the _US_ government and you didn't have enough common sense to move a frozen robot where it would _stay_ frozen if the generators failed and claim it was because of the budget?" asked Harry in disbelief.

Clearly they wasn't going to win this one, because they continued his explanation of the Cube.

"Carbon dating puts the Cube here around 10,000 BC. The first Seven didn't find it until 1913. They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphs on the Cube as well as NBE One. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete. A perfect way to hide it's energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside."

"And what happens when one manages to sneak past the guards _outside_? If there was a robot small enough it could get past you security and alert the others," Angel pointed out.

Harry noted something crawling on the floor below. His Seeker's eyes picked out a small _metallic _thing heading in the direction of the Cube.

"Son of a... We have a problem," said Harry.

"What is it James?" asked Lennox.

"I think a mini-bot is heading towards the cube. And somehow I doubt it's a friendly one."

"How can you tell?"

"I have really good eyesight when it comes to small moving objects," said Harry dryly.

"He is the youngest Seeker in over a hundred years. If he can pick out a small golden ball the size of a golf ball in broad daylight in the air, then I think we should listen to him," said Neville.

Harry watched as energy came off the Cube and hit the small metal thing. It grew into a child-sized humanoid shape.

"Crap. It healed itself."

"Wait, back up. You said the dam hides the Cube's energy. What kind exactly?"

"Good question."

Harry, Neville, Angel and Anne all felt the energy coming off the Cube in waves. A similar feeling was coming off the robot, only it felt far colder. If Harry had to venture a guess as to what the energy was, he would have sworn it was magic.

"Please step inside. They have to lock us in."

"Well gee, that's comforting," said Anne sarcastically.

"Oh, wow. What's that? Freddy Krueger done been up in here or something?" asked Epps.

"I thought that freak had four claws?" said Anne.

"Oh, no, man. Freddy Krueger have four blades, man. That's only three, That's Wolverine! Right? That's Wolverine!"

Anne looked at him dryly.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend? Like, ever?"

"That's very funny," said Simmons, not amused, "Anybody have any mechanical devices? Blackberry? Key alarm? Cell Phone?"

Harry handed him his radio, which had been taken out in the attack. Simmons placed the fried machine into the glass box. Everyone put on odd goggles which shielded their eyes.

"We're able to take the Cube's radiation and funnel it into that box."

Simmons hit a button, and the radio was zapped with a powerful wave of energy from the Cube. That was when Harry heard the sound that he remembered from the attack. The thing vaguely resembled a dog of some sorts, and was looking at the people outside with interest. Harry noticed that the symbol on the tiny robot looked almost like a face of some sort.

"Wait a minute. What's that symbol on it's side?" asked Neville.

Anne looked closer. She grinned wildly and then opened the box before anyone could stop her. The tiny robot calmly sat in her arms without showing a hint of attacking.

"This little guy is cute."

"Ma'am, put the robot back into the box," said Simmons firmly.

"Bite me psycho. This guy isn't going to attack anyone."

"Put him back in the box," Simmons repeated.

"Are you an idiot, or just plain stupid? Look at the symbol on the side!"

Sam took a closer look and recognized it.

"Bumblebee has the same one!"

"This 'bot is an Autobot. Friendly."

Harry grinned.

"Mind if I hold it?"

Anne handed it over. The dog barked, and calmly stayed in Harry's arms. Simmons scowled. Clearly he wasn't going to fry this one. Not if they had anything to say about it.

Suddenly Harry felt something outside. A feeling as cold as Megatron, only slightly less evil.

"Great. Another robot just showed up, and I don't think he's here to say hello," said Harry with a scowl.

"Gentlemen, they know the Cube is here."

"Banachek, what's going on?"

"Well, the NBE One hanger has lost power...and the backup generator is just not gonna cut it."

"What?"

"Do you have an arms room?" asked Lennox.

They hurried out, the new robot staying by Harry's side. He decided to call it Sirius as a joke. (He knew his godfather would get a kick out of it.)

"Get everyone to the NBE One chamber now!"

"Are you daft? That thing is obviously going to thaw out! Get them in the arms room so we can put up a proper fight in a better area!" said Anne in annoyance.

"She's right. In a close quarters fight against that thing, you'll only get them killed," said Harry.

"The lights are out!"

"Move it! Move it!"

"Let's go!"

"They're popping our generators!"

They raced to the arms room, hoping to get to the weapons in time.

Everyone began loading rounds into every gun they could use. Rounds were placed on the table and handed to the soldiers without a word.

"Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" yelled Simmons.

"That's good. Get all the ammo you got. Everything you can carry. Bring it."

Sam went to Simmons, and said "You've got to take me to my car. You have to take me to my car. He's gonna know what to do with the Cube."

"Your car? It's confiscated."

"For the love of... Shut up, and take the kid to his car. It's an Autobot right?" asked Anne. Sam nodded.

"Harry, Angel, free the 'bot. Neville, load up on medical supplies," said Anne calmly.

Harry, Angel and Sam rushed to find Bumblebee.

Simmons went to argue with her, but her eyes kept his mouth shut.

"You argue, and I will slap you so hard that you'll see stars. I don't give a damn about this S Seven place, and since you don't actually exist in the regular government, we don't have to listen to your conspiracy bullshit. So shut up and let us deal with this," said Anne calmly.

"Threatening me is a federal offense!" said Simmons.

Anne slapped him hard enough that he shut up again.

"Next time I will shoot you. So shut your trap and let people who actually _know_ what they are doing work, am I clear?" she said in a voice that would terrify any normal man.

"Simmons?" said Keller.

"Yes, sir?"

"I'd do what she says. Losing's really not an option for these guys."

Anne cracked a grin at the man.

* * *

They went into the chamber where the Camaro was, and found an interesting sight. Harry and Angel had all the people with fire extinguishers pinned to the wall while Sam calmed Bumblebee down. He wasn't too happy about being hit with the extinguishers.

Needless to say Bumblebee was pissed off a bit.

"Look, we don't have time for this. Bumblebee, was it?" asked Anne. Sam nodded.

"Bumblebee, Megatron is in another hanger, and the Cube is right next to him. We need to get it out of here so we can come up with a plan," said Anne in a calm voice.

Bumblebee had his weapons aimed at the soldiers.

"They won't hurt you again. We need your help," said Harry from the left.

"Here, come with me. I'm gonna take you to the All-Spark."

Bumblebee stood in front of the Cube and held up his hands. The thing began to shrink into itself and very quickly became a much smaller version.

"Okay, here we go. He doing something. He doing something," said Epps.

"_Message from Starfleet Captain. Let's get to it,"_ said Bumblebee in his odd radio speak.

"He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hanger. Mission City is 22 miles away. We're gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city," said Lennox.

"Good. Right."

"But we cannot make a stand without the Air Force."

"And what am I, chopped liver?" said Harry amused.

"You don't have your plane," said Anne.

"I do. I have it right here. I can fly that Cube to Mission City and wait for you there. But we should really evacuate the place to avoid unnecessary civilian casualties," said Harry.

"Sir, you have got to get the word out to them. Let's move!"

Bumblebee handed Harry the Cube, and watched as the boy raced outside. The small canine Autobot wanted to follow him, but Anne firmly put her hand on it's shoulder.

"You're with us," she said. It whined, but it followed her.

Harry found a door that lead outside and opened it. As soon as he found the perfect spot to launch, he undid the charms that held his plane in stasis. Next came his helmet. It took ten full minutes to do his pre-flight check.

Once he finished that he took to the skies. In his lap was the Cube.

* * *

Below Bumblebee and the rest of his team had left the hangers behind and were now on open road. Five minutes after they left, they ran into some very welcome reinforcements.

It was Optimus and the others.

Thirty minutes later they found Harry in the air. The sound of his plane was loud enough for them to know he was right above them. It would take less than an hour to reach Mission City, but thanks to the advice Harry gave Keller, it would be mostly evacuated.

Harry had noted the major U-turn that Optimus and the others pulled with some amusement.

They were on a freeway, from what Harry could tell. There was only one problem.

A large number of Decepticons had shown up, and one of them had transformed to kill them. Optimus took care of the first one, killing it with his sword.

Lennox and the others had to stop to buy some radios. It would be the only way to communicate with the Air Force when they arrived. Not to mention it was the only way for them to speak to Harry.

"_Prongs, how are you for fuel?" _asked Lennox.

"_Full tank up here. I can stay in the air for at least another three hours. Hold on a second..."_ said Harry as he saw out of the corner of his eye another plane.

He circled around and got a close look at the plane. From what he could tell it was an F-22. But there was something wrong with it.

For starters, it had the weird hieroglyphs that decorated the cube. And it was giving off the same vibe as the robot that had just attacked the dam less than an hour ago.

"_Shit! There's a Decepticon in the air with me! Alert the Autobots and don't let them know who has the Cube!"_ shouted Harry in growing horror.

Harry heard the sound of a gun and banked right, avoiding the hit. It quickly turned into a chase between Starscream and Harry, as the Decepticon had sensed he had the Cube. Harry abruptly changed his course, and headed _towards _Starscream. Once he was in range he opened fire with his gun.

The sabot rounds must have hurt Starscream pretty badly, because the Decepticon changed his heading back towards Lennox and the others.

Then _he_ showed up. Megatron himself. Harry cursed, and banked left. He was half out of his ammo, and his fuel tank had been clipped, but fortunately wasn't leaking.

Starscream sent a missile in Lennox's direction. Harry had two choices at that moment.

Shoot the thing down or allow his team to be seriously injured. He didn't think twice, as he accelerated and switched to his regular bullets. His Seeker's instincts were going at full throttle, as his eyes seemed to narrow down on the missile.

He opened fire, and time seemed to slow down. The missile exploded scant seconds before it hit the Furby truck Bumblebee was lifting up.

Harry heard a roar of rage over his engines, and couldn't avoid the next missile that Starscream aimed at him.

His right engine was gone, and the robot seemed determined to blow him out of the air. He had no choice but to abandon his plane. Once he reached a high enough altitude for his chute to work properly, he gently patted his plane and wished he had another choice. Suddenly Starscream hit him again with a shower of bullets.

The fight knocked the Cube off his lap and without warning Harry felt a pulse of energy from the Cube.

His plane bucked once, then gained a mind of it's own.

Blue eyes made of LEDs blinked at him, before he felt the top of the plane come off and his seat fly out.

The plane banked left on it's own, and Harry descended safely to the ground. He was in the middle of a city and had no idea where Lennox and the others were without a bird's eye view.

But apparently the newest canine Autobot knew where _he_ was at all times, because he bounded up to him wagging it's metal tail.

Since he would waste precious minutes reached the Autobots running, Sirius transformed into a small motorcycle. Harry blinked before he got on the tiny 'bot.

Was it him or had the tiny robot gotten bigger? Then he watched in shock as the motorcycle began to grow as they passed pieces of metal that had been blown off the Cybertronian fighters. Soon it was half his size!

When Sirius reached the size of a medium sized black bear, he stopped growing.

Harry watched with horror as the helicopter that attacked the base in Qatar showed up. He got his gun and started shooting at the large tank that had gotten up.

"James!" shouted Lennox in surprise.

"I think my plane is a new Autobot!" said Harry.

"What?" said Anne, her eyes narrowing.

"The Cube was knocked off my lap and energy hit my plane. It blinked at me before I was ejected."

"I just hope it is a 'Bot."

"We need to get that thing out of here. Can you get to the top of that building?" asked Lennox, pointing to a tall building in the north.

"I'll do it or die trying sir. Good luck," said Harry, handing him his gun.

Harry began to run, and he noted with some relief that two Autobots flanked him. Megatron showed up on the ground, and the resulting tremor caused him to trip. The Cube went off again, and transformed several human devices.

"Crap."

Harry's eyes alighted to his bracelet, and he felt like hitting himself. Was he a wizard or not?

"_Engorgio_!"

The tiny Firebolt grew to it's normal size and he got on it. He didn't waste time thinking, as he gripped his broom tightly. One arm had the Cube under it, the other had his wand.

He aimed his wand carefully and shot at any Decepticon that came to close to him. He reached the top of the building in record time. There was only one problem.

Megatron had followed him. Apparently there was a brain under all that metal, because he had figured out _who _had the Cube he wanted.

Harry hit the top of the flare, and tried to reach the helicopter before Megatron reached _him._

Unfortunately, Megatron had other ideas. Before he could hand over the Cube, the demented bot had shot down the Black Hawk. Harry crawled onto the stone guardian that stood on the roof.

"Is it fear or courage that compels you boy?"

Harry snorted.

"More like a complete disregard for the plans people like you have in mind," said Harry in annoyance.

Megatron stalked towards Harry. But he wasn't having any of that. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the street below. His mind remembered the smallest detail and he felt something answer his visual. He felt like he was being squeezed through a tube far too small, and there was a distinct pop sound.

Harry opened his eyes.

He was on the street!

He started running, but Megatron jumped off the building and was upon him in minutes. But Optimus beat him to the punch.

"Harry, put the Cube in my chest."

"It would kill you. And I am _not_ helping someone die like a martyr if I can help it," said Harry firmly.

Megatron came down, his sword out and ready to kill him. Optimus began to brawl with his brother.

The ground beneath him cracked, and he fell. The Cube went off again, only the amount of new bots wasn't as many. Harry poked his head out and saw that once again they were in a stalemate.

Megatron saw Harry again, and began to crawl towards him. Optimus opened his chest cavity revealing a blue light. Clearly he wanted him to put the Cube inside.

"Mine! All-Spark!"

Harry saw his chance, and ran towards the evil robot. Megatron had a large hole in his chest. Without thinking twice, he pushed the Cube into that hole. The amount of power he felt was enormous.

Something clicked inside his chest, and Harry nearly passed out from the power he felt.

* * *

"James, what were you thinking?" asked Lennox later.

"People back home expect me to be a bloody martyr, so excuse me for not wanting to let that happen to Optimus."

Ironhide took Lennox home to see his family, since Harry threatened to hex him if he didn't.

Just another adventure for the boy-who-lived.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry was on the newly minted N.E.S.T. Operations base where he spent his days with the Autobots when he got a letter from the twins.

"_Harry, we need your help. Voldemort had almost taken over with hardly any opposition at all. _

_We need you back here so we can come up with a plan to permanently take him out._

_Terror Twins of the Gryffins."'_

* * *

So he got his things together and told Neville what he planned to do.

"I need to go back. I have to settle things with that overbearing idiot once and for all," said Harry.

"Well then I'll go back to. Heaven knows _you_ always need a medic at some point," said Neville with a grin.

"Did hear that right? You are actually going _back_ to England?" asked Anne.

"I need to clean house, or I'll never get any peace," said Harry.

"Count me in then. I've always wanted to see England."

"I need to head home, if only to check up on my folks," said Angel.

They had to schedule a leave in order to go. And they had to clear it with Optimus, since Harry was the only person who Sirius would listen to.

The former radio was now a large lupine robot the size of a medium sized black bear. Or as Anne liked to call him, the wolf plushie.

Sirius would go with them as they went to clear out Europe of their infestation of Dark Wizards. Once Harry explained why he had to stop Voldemort, Optimus understood. The thought of a human version of Megatron learning of the Autobots and bending them to his will was enough to give him a headache. And robots don't get headaches!

So he permitted Sirius the trickster bot and (reluctantly) Nightfire, their only air support. Though Optimus often wondered why they became Autobots instead of Decepticons after being awakened by the tainted Spark of the Cube.

But there was something else that really bothered Optimus, and whenever he had a quiet minute alone he would wonder about it aloud.

Before Harry had completely destroyed the Cube, and killed Megatron, there was a surge of energy. Most of it should have gone into Megatron, but for some reason Optimus had a feeling that it went into Harry.

If that was the case, then what had happened to the boy? If the energy from the All Spark had gone into him, then every time he touched something mechanical like a laptop it should have transformed.

But for some reason they didn't. And why did the boy and the others feel like they had a spark of their own?

Those questions haunted Optimus.

* * *

Harry, Neville, Angel and Anne looked around in shock. This was not the England they remembered.

Cars were on the road burning. The air was oppressive and dark. It felt like all hope had been drained from the people. The mist on the ground was horrible.

It looked like an ancient battlefield that was still haunted by ghosts.

"I don't know about you, but I think we should head to the RAF grounds. Something tells me that's the safest place to be."

The trek to the airfield was more hazardous than they had believed. They were accosted three times by scavengers, and managed to keep them away long enough to escape. They weren't going to open fire on civilians if they could help it.

Upon seeing the guards standing at the gates, Harry quickly introduced himself and his companions. They were rushed in and Harry grinned when he saw Leon with Sirius.

"James! What are you doing here?" asked Leon.

"I came back to clean house, what else? Fill me in on the problem areas so we can plan an attack. Sirius, sit."

Naming the lupine Autobot after his godfather was definitely worth the look on the man's face as he saw the bot sit down like a dog. Leon's mouth dropped in surprise at the sight.

"Now, I believe a round of catch up is in order?" said Anne.

By morning everyone was ready to clean Europe of it's dark wizard problem. And they started with Britain.

* * *

Harry lead a small strike force into Draco's mansion. The pale blond absolutely refused to allow aerial bombing on his mansion. (Which had Padfoot and Harry whining a bit.)

Angel of course wanted to know _why_ they wanted to blow it up when it was easier to go in and take out the enemy when Anne snorted in amusement.

"They're guys. Guys love to blow stuff up... Coincidentally I also voted to blow it up," said Anne with a grin. Padfoot snickered.

"And the twins would have been the demolition crew. So no blowing up the mansion. Any derelict houses where they happen to be in however, are fair game."

Anne grinned wildly.

"I believe Jamesie happens to know of such a place. Anyone up for target practice later?"

Harry unhappy mood brightened. He knew the perfect place to blow up.

That bloody house in Little Hangleton. It haunted his nightmares often enough, and it would be perfect to see the place go up in flames.

They stalked into the mansion, stunning anyone who saw them. Which was mostly house elves.

Then they saw three people. Snape, Lucius Malfoy, and Macnair.

Frankly, none of them would lose any sleep over Macnair dying, but the other two would present a problem.

So Anne came up with a rather amusing solution which would guarantee the two wouldn't be around for their raid.

She waited until Macnair left the room, went in and said "I have five hundred galleons and know two pairs of twins that are open to suggestions. So you have two options. Public humiliation or having a threesome."

She could practically hear the jaws drop and snickers barely held in check as the two looked at each other, took the coins and promptly apparated out to the address she gave them. She hit her team with a silencing charm as they broke into full blown laughter. When her team finally recovered she removed the charm.

"How did you know they would take the bait?" asked Draco when he could breathe again.

"What straight guy turns down money and a threesome with twins?" she asked in return.

Sirius had to be hit with another charm as he starting howling with laughter again.

They left the room and came upon the study. Inside were at least fifteen Death Eaters torturing some poor schmuck. Harry signaled the group to follow his lead, and as one they broke into the room. Before the Death Eaters could react properly, they were either dead, incapacitated from pain, or stunned.

Neville was standing over the body of three people, with an odd expression on his face.

"Nev? You okay?" asked Harry.

"I'm fine. I just can't believe I finally got revenge for my parents after all these years," said Neville in a strained voice.

The people he was standing over was the Lestrange trio...the same people who tortured his parents into insanity.

"I'm sure your parents would be proud of you Nev. Who knows, maybe someday you can find a way to heal them," said Angel.

"Huh... Hey, what about Ratchet? He seems fairly well informed on human physiology. Maybe he could help."

They went further into the mansion. Harry was impressed when even Draco showed disgust as they approached the dungeons. They were filled with muggles and muggleborns.

"On second thought, Dray, I apologize for wanting to bomb your house," said Harry as he shook his head.

Anne, Angel and Neville escorted the people out of the cells while Draco, Harry and Sirius looked for more Death Eaters. They found ten more, but only five were killed in the shootout. The others they stunned.

* * *

Leon was surprised to discover that half the people they rescued were from the British Military. Apparently Voldemort had taken it badly that most of his recruits preferred to join the muggle military.

Harry was shocked to discover that Hermione was there as well, only she wasn't a soldier at all. Instead she had been recruited as a top scientist who helped to combine magic with technology in the hopes of dragging the magical community out of the Dark Ages.

With the death of Fudge it was possible for that to happen. The man had outlived his usefulness.

But they had another problem aside from the now dead Minister. And her name was Delores Umbridge.

* * *

Sirius was the one who lead them into the Ministry. Snape and Lucius (through letters to Draco) had alerted them to a possible attack within a few hours.

But before they even considered defending the place, they were all determined to get rid of one major pain in the arse. Delores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic.

Sirius, Anne, Angel, Fred, George and Harry all wanted to get rid of her because of her cruel laws towards anyone not from a pure-blood house.

Draco and Blaise wanted her out of the way because she had the second _worst_ taste in colors known to the Magical Community.

(The number one spot was unequivocally held by Dumbledore himself.)

Then she appeared. There had been a very hearty debate among the team over the decision to stun, shoot or just plain get rid of the woman. It was Anne who came up with a solution that appealed to everyone.

Complete and public humiliation in front of every pure-blood in the magical community.

Frankly Sirius and Harry wouldn't have minded shooting the woman in the kneecaps, but this idea was good too. It appealed to their inner pranksters.

Why did they dislike the woman so much?

She had been the spearhead for most of the anti-werewolf laws.

Anne hexed the woman so she couldn't move, and went to work. Sirius and the guys shivered. Her smirk was far too disturbing for a woman who was humiliating someone so horrible.

"Honestly Siri, if I had to chose between my Aunt Petunia and this Umbitch (Harry adopted Anne's private nickname for the woman), I would have to say I prefer Petunia. At least she is easy to handle. Just point a wand and she'll listen."

Anne left Umbridge dancing the cancan above the _Daily Prophet_ wearing nothing but a vampire costume in pink taffeta. She looked ridiculous. And above Umbridge were letters in gaudy neon orange proclaiming that Voldemort was her lover.

Padfoot and Harry cackled when they saw what she had done.

Everyone got into position. Harry, Padfoot, and Anne would be in the upper levels, where they could shoot from above. Neville would be behind the lines, healing anyone who became injured. Draco, Blaise, and Angel would be on the second level, doing damage where they could. On the ground level was Remus and the twins. They would signal where to aim when the DE started to arrive.

The fireworks made excellent distractions.

* * *

Avery flooed into the Ministry, leading the advance forces. He hoped to catch the spy that had alerted the Mage Force to their raids ahead of time. The Dark Lord had promised to allow anyone who found the spy a seat in the inner circle, where only the best reigned.

He was tired of seeing Severus acting so smug.

Thirty Death Eaters followed Avery into the Ministry. Their mission was simple enough. Raid the place and kidnap as many people against the Dark Lord to play with later when they returned.

They had lost over a hundred people when the Mage Force raided Malfoy Manor, as well as several of the inner circle. Macnair, the Lestrange trio, Crabbe Sr. and the younger Flint had been captured or killed.

Since the Ministry hadn't lead the raid, no one knew where the prisoners had been taken.

Suddenly a shrill sound went overhead. Avery ducked on instinct, and was hit from above. He knew no more as his force was quickly taken out.

* * *

Harry was pleased. His group had captured over thirty Death Eaters in a single raid. And his prisoners included several of the higher ranking members of Voldemort's circle.

Since he had been having so much luck in capturing his targets, Harry was being considered for an early admittance to the Officer's school.

If he passed his tests, then he would be allowed to choose which base he stationed at for the rest of his career.

The fact that he already had two giant robots who answered to him had weighed heavily on the decision. Nightfire was a valuable asset to the RAF, since he could fly himself without a pilot. (Though he had told Leon he preferred Harry to fly him, since the boy could do it better.)

Sirius was a nuisance, but he listened to Harry and Anne. And he mostly played minor pranks, such as hiding tools in hard to see places. (Once he left a wrench in a cockpit and it was only found because the pilot sat on it.)

In order to avoid confusion, Sirius the man and Sirius the wolf-bot were now Sirius and Dogstar. Even Harry agreed to the name change.

* * *

He was livid. Every time he sent his minions to kill or capture, none of them came back. And he knew it wasn't the Ministry at work here, because there were no new prisoners sent to Azkaban!

Which left the accursed Mage Force.

Wizards and witches who joined the British Military were often sent to the Mage Force, where they were properly trained to use both magic and military tactics. They were stronger and better trained than the best Auror in England. And they were better coordinated.

The only reason most students didn't go into the Mage Force was that Dumbledore had told the teachers not to make it well known that the option existed.

The problem with _that_ trick was that all males who reached age eighteen had to serve at least two years in Her Majesty's army. Being able to use magic didn't exclude you either.

Most pure-bloods didn't know that in order to receive _any _inheritance they had to serve. And goblins weren't going to tell them unless asked. It was their favorite joke.

Voldemort had never served a day. It was that reason alone that he never inherited his mother's legacy. And he wasn't going to when he could easily rob Gringotts of their gold.

That thought amused him so much that he decided to do just that. It was time for the pesky goblins to remember their place in the world.

* * *

Griphook was not happy. For one thing someone was going to steal from the Goblin clans. Last time _that_ happened the goblins lead a revolt.

On the other hand, the people there to stop the theft was lead by their most valued customer. The one Wizard who actually treated every goblin with the respect they deserved.

Harry James Potter.

Harry, Sirius, Dogstar, Anne, Angel, Neville, Gred, Forge, Draco, Leon and Cho Chang were in the bank, and took a position where they had a clear view of the targets. The bank patrons had no idea what was about to happen. They went about their day and paid no notice to the goblins.

Suddenly everything went quiet. No one could put a finger on the reason why all sound had ceased. Then the sound of apparition was heard, and the skull and black cloaks told the patrons that the Death Eaters had arrived.

Then the screaming started.

Harry shot a protective bubble around the groups of civilians he saw. Goblins had promptly gone behind the counters, which were made to withstand spell damage. Several more goblins came out of the woodwork with armor and weapons. On Harry's signal, his team began shooting.

His protective bubbles prevented bullets and the strongest spells from harming innocents. People cowered under the opaque shields, praying to whatever god they thought would hear them. Children cried next to their parents, who were hovering over them protectively.

Outside it wasn't much better, as the people didn't have the protection of Harry's bubbles to hide behind. Aurors were taking their time to reach the Alley, which was usual for the Ministry.

But where the Ministry's people failed in promptness, the Mage Force was there to pick up the slack. Within minutes of hearing the attack had begun, they arrived to evacuate civilians.

The alley was clear of people within fifteen minutes. Harry held down the fort long enough for his friends to do their job.

Once he knew for a fact that most of the innocent people were out, he signaled his team to take out the enemy without killing if they could help it.

Cho, Anne and Angel took out three by hitting their legs. Harry took out four on his own.

Dogstar began hitting Death Eaters with modified tasers, which had them dropping like flies. Leon, Draco and Neville were aiming stunners with amazing accuracy.

The twins added to the general confusion by throwing some of their pranks at the enemy.

The portable swamps, while messy, were effective. The Death Eaters were too busy trying to get out of them to evade stunners. Leon and Sirius were shooting spells that hung Death Eaters by the ankles, before hitting them with the Total Petrification spells.

The goblins did their part by making sure those who went down, _stayed_ down. They hit Death Eaters hard enough that if they didn't pass out from the spells they fell unconscious from the hit.

By the time night fell, only ten remained awake. Griphook had activated the anti-apparition ward the second the attack began. Harry approached the remaining members and said clearly "You have two options. One, you could try to make a run for it and get your ass kicked by beings not only smaller but clearly _smarter_ than you (here he nods to the goblins who grinned widely), or you could surrender and not get kicked in a place that would be rather uncomfortable."

Then he noted that a majority of those who were still conscious had a glazed look in their eyes. The others just looked nervous. They were barely out of school.

"Knock them all out. We'll sort who was put under the Imperious at base camp," said Leon.

They had discovered something rather amusing about Death Eaters. Once caught, most were cowards. Add an annoyed giant dog robot who looked angry at them, and most wet their pants within seconds. Add a large _humanoid_ robot who looked like it would shoot their head off, and they spilledeverything.

It was a rather effective way to interrogate the prisoners.

(And it had the added effect of giving everyone who knew the bots a good laugh.)

According to at least five of the Death Eater initiates, Voldemort was currently hiding in a small decrepit hovel with no real amnesties. Only three knew _where_ that hovel was, and four could name at least fifteen Death Eaters who were with him at all times.

It was good intel, but as always, Harry wanted to make sure they had everything before they decided to bomb the place.

Then they found out two of their spies were in there. Severus and a special ops guy that Harry only knew as Micheal. Both of them were part of their side, so they had to warn them about the impending doom.

Harry sent Gylfie, the smallest owl they had on base, to Micheal. She was trained not to be seen until the last second, and was so small no one ever noticed her until it was too late.

He got a reply back, asking for the time and date of the attack. Harry sent another letter coded so only those in the military could actually understand what it said.

Two days later they heard that Voldemort narrowly escaped the attack, and not without injuries.

His legs were broken in five places from the pressure wave, his hearing was gone for a while, and the burns on his upper torso were pretty severe. He was going to be out of commission for a while. Which meant they had some time to prepare for the next strike.

* * *

He was furious. It seemed that unlike the irritating Order of the Phoenix, the people in the Mage Force knew what they were doing. His numbers were dwindling rapidly, and the attack on Gringotts had been disastrous.

Now there was the attack on his secret place, and he almost didn't escape. Clearly he had to do something about the Mage Force.

The attack came without warning. Everyone was almost completely off guard, since the Death Eaters hadn't shown up through apparition like usual.

Ever since Harry had come back to clear out the Death Eaters, the mood around Europe had lightened somehow. It was like the country knew that the darkness was lifting, slowly but surely.

And the more Death Eaters they captured, the more the atmosphere was lifted.

Harry grabbed his gun, and ran out the tent. He had been brushing his teeth when they showed up. Thankfully Dogstar had been on surveillance, since he had raised the alarm within seconds.

Too bad for the Death Eaters the Mage Force was well trained to handle sudden attacks like this. You never know when a field situation turns into a nasty ambush.

Everyone who had good aim set up a line. One on the ground flat, one up on a roof, and one standing up. They aimed to wound or incapacitate. Killing was only an option if the people didn't take a hint.

Three DE's died, but they were rather thick.

They managed to capture forty Death Eaters. It wasn't pretty stitching them up, as Neville refused to help them.

* * *

The next morning several people from the Order of the Phoenix arrived. Apparently Dumbledore hadn't taken it too well that someone was finally taking care of the Death Eater problem.

What the old man didn't count on was that his own people deciding to switch sides. Originally he had over a hundred people in the Order, max. but now he barely had thirty. All the younger magic users found the Mage Force to their liking. Not only were they getting respect for what they were doing, but the Ministry didn't frown on them for joining. Quite the opposite in fact.

Word had it that the current Minister was considering a change in training for his Aurors. He was planning on sending them to the Mage Force so they could improve their ability to catch Dark Wizards.

Harry caught wind of something he didn't like. According to Anne, there was a certain object called a Horcrux which could store souls.

When she described it to him, Harry had scowled. It sounded too much like the diary he had come across second year.

That night he had a nightmare, the first one since he had left England.

It was Voldemort, and he looked really pissed off.

"_Tell me, Wormtail, why should I keep you around when most of my best people are captured?"_

"_My Lord, I am the only person who stays with you at all times!"_

"_Wormtail, if Potter finds out about the other Horcruxes, I will personally skin you alive!" Voldemort hissed._

"_My Lord, how could Potter find out where they are? You hid them so well!" said Wormtail in a placating manner._

"_Potter is smarter than he appeared to be Wormtail. He could easily find the cave and the vault!"_

Harry woke with a start. That was the strangest dream he had had in a while.

He went to Leon and Anne and told them exactly what he had seen. Then Sirius took him to Gringotts to inspect the Lestrange vaults. As head of the House of Black, he had access to the vault of anyone from his house. And that included Bellatrix.

Inside the vault was a cup, but not just any cup. This was the missing cup of Helga Hufflepuff herself.

Sirius carefully took it out of the Vault and handed it to the goblins.

Griphook's lip curled in disgust, which was unusual since the cup was made of pure gold and had gems encrusted in it. Mostly emeralds, but gems nonetheless.

An hour later he came out of the small room and looked considerably disturbed.

"I loathe Horcruxes. You can never properly enchant the item used again."

"So it was a horcrux?" asked Sirius, concerned.

"According to the spell test we did, one of eight. And there is another one in the bank right now."

"Where?" asked Harry.

His eyes widened when Griphook gave a pointed stare at his scar.

"We can remove it now if you wish. The procedure is fairly painless."

"Fairly?" said Sirius.

"Well there is the issue of hearing loss. Apparently the souls scream quite loud when inside a living host."

"What do I have to do?"

"Follow me."

Harry followed every instruction given, and two hours later he left feeling like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. Now he wouldn't have to hear Voldemort in his head again. And according the Griphook, the magic that was in the scar would remain in his core for as long as he wanted.

* * *

Harry was on an outcropping close to the sea. According to the intel Severus gave him, there was a horcrux in the cave under the orphanage Tom Riddle grew up in. Inside was a locket.

Harry crouched low on Dogstar as the Autobot made full use of the jet engines it had absorbed. Starscream wasn't going to miss 'em that much.

Inside the cave was a wall with red lettering spelling out the word _'BLOOD'_.

"Can anyone say cliché?" muttered Harry as he carefully cut his hand.

Soon they were speeding low on the water, ignoring the tiny boat entirely. They came upon an island in the cave, and somehow Harry knew he wasn't going to like what he had to do next.

There was something inside the bowl, and the only way to get to it was to drink the contents.

"Dogstar, you're on guard duty. Anything that comes out of that lake you kill without hesitating. Moldy-shorts is not known for being pleasant to be around."

"_Got it partner."_

One cup at a time, he drank the liquid. His insides felt like they were on fire. His only saving grace was that he had a bezoar in his mouth, as it took the brunt of the effects.

Halfway into the cup, they began to appear.

Inferi, or as Harry liked to call them **'the pain in the arse dead things that just refuse to DIE!'**.

Dogstar used his weapons to their full extent as he blasted wave after wave of Inferi. It seemed that even the undead creatures that Voldemort used couldn't stand up to Cybertronian weaponry.

Harry saw the necklace within reach, and grabbed it quickly. Dogstar waited for Harry to wobble to him. Once Harry lay across his back, he leaped.

The engines kicked in seconds before they crashed into the water. It wasn't long before they were coasting their way back to the nearest base.

Harry groaned. He really hoped the thing he stole was a horcrux, because if it wasn't, he was going to go with Anne and the others to prank someone.

And it wasn't going to be pretty.

Sirius saw his godson and immediately took him to Neville. Two hours and a stomach pump later, Harry looked at the locket he retrieved.

And tried not to swear _too_ badly.

The thing was a fake. Inside was a note from someone named R.A.B., which made no sense.

Sirius took one look at the handwriting and swore. He recognized it.

"I don't believe it. What the bloody hell was my brother doing in that cave?"

Harry took the damp cloth off his face and glared at Sirius.

"Your _brother_ stole that locket?"

"R.A.B., also known as Regulus Black. My younger brother. He died while in the service of the Dark tosser. I always thought he did something to tick him off."

"So let me get this straight. I went through the hell of drinking that crap and having my stomach pumped for _nothing?" _Harry snarled. He had not had a good day.

"Well there is a way to find out what he did with it."

"_You_ go retrieve it then. I intend to take a long nap."

Sirius chuckled.

* * *

The next morning Sirius arrived with a familiar locket.

"The only way to destroy this one is to open it, according to Griphook anyway. And one of the few ways to destroy a horcrux is with something that has basilisk venom on it."

Harry sat up.

"Like a sword?"

"That would work...why?"

Harry grinned evilly.

"Who's up for sneaking into the castle?"

Sirius' eyes narrowed.

"What are you up to?"

"Second year I faced an enormous basilisk. It's venom should still be on the sword."

"You _WHAT?"_

Harry then realized he had never told his godfather about his previous adventures at the school. Which meant he didn't know about the troll either.

And that was something he intended to take to the grave with him. Sirius would never let him do anything if he knew the truth!

Sirius lead them quietly into the school. It wasn't in session, which made it easier to get in and out.

They ducked behind a statue when Filch passed, and Mrs. Norris ignored them entirely. She only ratted people out when the school was in session.

Harry crept up to the Headmaster's office. Dumbledore wasn't there, since Snape had mentioned another DE meeting. Dumbledore would be waiting for his spy to arrive and tell them what occurred.

The gargoyle stepped aside when he approached. While Harry retrieved the sword, Sirius was going to a room he knew about on the seventh floor. Griphook had mentioned a locator spell for dark artifacts, and Sirius knew about it. And his wand was clearly pointing to a little used spot known as the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go room.

Fawkes chirped sleepily at Harry, who nodded to the phoenix. He carefully took the sword off the stand in the case, and snuck out without a word. Or would have, if the Sorting Hat hadn't spoken up.

"_If I were you, I would check the second drawer on the left."_

"Why?"

"_You might find something VERY interesting..." _the hat hinted.

So Harry opened the drawer, and aside from a scroll he found nothing. He took the scroll. It wasn't like the old man wouldn't know someone had been in there with the sword missing.

Sirius met up with his godson and Dogstar five minutes later. In his hands was an odd crown thing.

They were far from Hogwarts when Dumbledore discovered he had been robbed.

Harry unfurled the scroll after disposing of the diadem and the locket. It turned out that Voldemort had a thing for Founder's artifacts.

When he read what was on the scroll he saw red with rage. It was his parent's will!

"_This being the last will and testament of Lily and James Potter..."_

Harry read down the will, and tried not to tear the parchment from fury. According to the will, he was _never_ to go to the Dursleys to begin with! Why did Dumbledore have his parents will?

* * *

The next time he went to Gringotts to deliver the artifacts, he brought up the will to Griphook.

"The Potter will has been missing since their death. There have been many attempts to locate it, but the headmaster has shot down all of them."

Harry's hand trembled with anger towards the old man as he gave Griphook the scroll. The goblin's eyes widened as he read the scroll.

"We shall put this into effect immediately Lord Potter. Would you like to change your legal and magical guardian?"

"Sirius and Remus."

"Very well."

Harry walked out angry, but also in a somewhat better mood. By morning Dumbledore would have to face the music. He believed he was doing all this for his dubious '_greater good_', but he clearly needed a new grasp on reality.

Hiding a will from a pure-blood line was a very serious offense.

* * *

Voldemort wasn't happy at all. One by one his horcruxes were being destroyed systematically. The only one that was still safe was the newest one he created in Nagini.

Then he decided enough was enough. He was going to have to destroy Potter himself.

* * *

Things were like they usually were in the raid. But something was different. It was in the air. Like the malevolent feeling around them had doubled.

Then he appeared. Voldemort.

Harry signaled his group to retreat, since he was the one who had to take him out in the end.

Voldemort stood proudly with his snake around his shoulders. Harry took out his wand, but his other hand held his hand gun behind his back.

Voldemort aimed his wand at him and prepared to cast a curse when Harry dropped and rolled out of his line of fire. His next action sent waves of shock down the Death Eater lines.

Harry had shot Voldemort in the head. The Dark Lord fell to the ground, but Harry had his gun aimed at the snake instead.

"Nice try, Moldy-shorts."

Harry didn't have time to aim, he shot his gun again. But something was wrong. Harry checked the firing mechanism and found it was jammed for some reason. It made no sense! He had just cleaned it this morning!

So he stowed his gun after putting the safety on. He took his wand and prepared to aim a blasting hex at the snake.

This was the Dark Lord's last horcrux.

Harry aimed his wand and cast.

He missed. And then he blinked. How the bloody hell could he miss at a time like this? He couldn't aim again, as the Voldemort-possessed snake began to come at him fast.

Dogstar came out of nowhere and grabbed Nagini in his jaws. Harry took his wand and prepared to fire again. But he missed. What was going on?

That was when he took a good look at the wand in his hands, and felt like hitting himself repeatedly. It wasn't his wand at all.

He had grabbed Draco's by mistake. Why did he have such bad luck?

So he decided to end the snake with his bare hands. As he reached to grab Nagini, something happened. His hands began to blow a bright blue color.

_What the hell?_

Harry reached out to touch the snake, and the blue light sparked from his hands. Everyone there could hear the scream from the snake, but it was in Voldemort's voice.

Then all was quiet. Harry reached towards the snake, but the light was gone. Nagini hissed at him, and he told Dogstar to put her down.

Voldemort was dead, this time for good. Harry had taken out all the horcruxes he could find. Which left him with only one pain in the arse to deal with.

* * *

"Albus Dumbledore, you are hereby charged with attempted line theft, going against the last will of a pure-blood line, stealing gold from a pure-blood, misuse of office, illegal use of Love Potions, leaving an heir to a pure-blood line in an abusive home, and attempted bribery. How do you plead?" said Kingsley.

Rufus Scrimgour had been killed during a Death Eater raid. But he had gone down fighting, which meant he was honored when the dead were buried.

Kingsley had stepped up to the office, and was voted in a week later.

"Not guilty."

"Very well, let the witnesses step forward and plead their case."

Snape went up first, and presented his memories. Visions of Dumbledore asking for the potions, hiding the scroll in the second drawer, and spying on the many Death Eater meetings.

Sirius was next, and his memory of Dumbledore convincing James to switch to Peter Pettigrew was by far the most damning evidence against him.

Several witnesses stood forward with their memories, and Harry decided to wait for last. He didn't like doing this, but it had to be done. Dumbledore was too manipulative for his own good, and he needed to see the consequences of his actions for a change.

Harry's memories were by far the most shocking the court had ever seen. The Dursley family had not been kind to him, and the fact that he was never supposed to go to them only made it worse.

McGonagall's memory of arguing _against_ the Dursley family was in her favor. But Dumbledore was definitely doomed.

Kingsley and the rest of the court listened to the memories and testimonies, and finally left the room to convene. It was not going to be good for Dumbledore, that much was certain. Most of the evidence was quite damning.

"Albus Percieval Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, you are hereby charged guilty of all charges. Your sentence is to be as follows. Fifty years in Azkaban for crimes against a minor, and ten years for attempting to control a pure-blood line through love potions. You may appeal the sentence in thirty years time. Dismissed!"

Kingsley used the gavel, and the sound was loud in the silent courtroom. Most of Dumbledore's supporters were in complete shock. He had overstepped his bounds this time.

Harry left feeling relieved and a little disappointed. He had trusted the old man, once upon a time. But after the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he had lost his faith.

Now he had a chance to start over his life, outside England. And he wasn't going to let anyone stop him.

* * *

Harry was preparing to leave when Leon caught up with him.

"Thank god you haven't left James! There's someone here who wants to see you!"

Harry gulped.

"Not another fangirl I hope?"

Leon's grin was disturbing. Who was this mysterious visitor? Harry followed him into the tent and barely kept his mouth from dropping.

_It was the Queen of England herself!_

* * *

_**Cliffy! I thought it would be fun to leave a little suspense for now. What does the Queen want with Harry? And what will it mean for the Autobots later on?**_

_**Wait until the next chapter to find out!**_

_**I just want to say Thank You to all the troops overseas. We don't do enough to honor you. God Bless All Troops.**_


	5. Chapter 5

Harry carefully walked up to the woman who ruled England. She looked younger than he would have thought.

"Is this James Black?"

Leon bowed as he said "Yes your majesty."

"We are impressed. Not many would return to a war torn land to save it."

"I only did what was right, instead of doing what was easy," replied Harry calmly.

"Indeed. You have face great danger, and have managed to retain that which makes England proud. Kneel, Lord Black."

Harry had an inkling of what was about to happen, but Leon's firm grip on his shoulder kept him from bolting. He _hated _attention, even if it was well deserved.

When Harry left the tent, he was in shock. Not only had he become a _knight_ of the realm, he had also been given land and had secured a safe haven for the bots should America become hazardous. (Which was likely considering the state of their government.)

He was now Sir Harry James Potter-Black, Duke of Wolverhampton.

He felt glad that he was leaving England for the N.E.S.T. Base. Though he was going to discreetly look up his new lands to see what he got later.

Before he could reach the jet, he was intercepted by the twins. They were quite eager to give him one last going-away surprise. It was part of their new prank line up.

Harry humored them, and bit into the innocent looking chocolate. There was a poof of smoke, and when it cleared he was in complete shock.

He was a_ girl!_

Harry took a calming breath before he said, "Fred, George...exactly _how_ long does this last?"

Fred shifted uncomfortably.

"We were kind of hoping _you _would tell us."

"Yeah mate, you never seem to go on vacation," said George.

Harry was not as amused now. _This_ was their way of telling him to go on vacation?

Leon walked up, did a double take, and started snickering.

"This is NOT funny Leon! What am I going to tell the 'bots?"

"You went on vacation?" said Leon, snickering.

"Will you quit laughing! How long does a gender switching potion last anyway?"

"Six months, give or take," said Anne, who was trying not to laugh.

"ARGH!"

"Look, you've been in the military for two years now. You've earned a six month reprieve. And after you just got rid of ol' Moldy-Shorts, I seriously doubt anyone is going to blame you for wanting a break."

"And what if it's a _permanent_ gender switching potion?" asked Angel.

"Then I come back to haunt them personally," growled Harry.

"So I take it Harry just became Harriet?" snickered Anne.

Harry growled, then before the twins could run he hexed them both.

"You _could_ have knocked me unconscious and put on a plane with no idea where I was going you know," she growled.

Anne had quit trying to hide it, she burst out laughing.

"He..._she_ has a point you know," chuckled Leon.

Anne had an unholy glint in her eyes. Harriet gulped.

"_Stupefy!"_

She went down like a ton of bricks.

* * *

**(From now on this will be a brief _Twilight_ crossover until Harriet returns to being Harry.)**

She woke up on a plane. The stewardess gave her a winning smile.

"Your friends wanted me to give this to you when you woke up."

"_Dear Harriet _(Inwardly she groaned. She was NEVER going to live this one down.)

_We hope you enjoy your unwanted vacation. The place we're sending you to is a small town. Unfortunately, you will have to suffer through a few month of regular high school until the potion wears off._

_Dogstar has been instructed by Anne NOT to let you near any military bases until you are back to being a guy. Don't feel too bad though!_

_There are reports of werewolves in the area (supposedly they are inherited Animagi, but we're kinda skeptical about that.)_

_You ARE allowed to use magic, provided you follow the American Ministry's magic regulations. You are NOT allowed to reveal what Dogstar is unless the person has confirmed military clearance._

_ENJOY YOUR VACATION!"_

Harriet growled.

"I am so going to get them for this," she grumbled.

When the plane landed in Seattle, she waited by the check out line.

There in all his glory was Dogstar, playing the part of a rather expensive motorcycle.

Harriet put on her new helmet (her vacation would suck if she was pulled over without it on) and prepared to let Dogstar drive. He knew where the place was.

It was big enough for a family of four. The kitchen was fully stocked, each bedroom had a nice fluffy bed. Inside the garage was a large mat which Dogstar took over. On the walls were tools for working on a motorcycle and models that he could make in her spare time.

A second glance brought forth an Auror class trunk with all the magical amenities she could wish for, including a large library full of books.

She knew Anne had something to do with the library...most of it was manga. On another shelf were several complete anime series, and a cartoon which made her laugh.

Anne had found several copies of the old Transformer series, and the more recent ones.

She was so having a movie night.

* * *

_Forks...the American equivalent of England. They would send me here._

It was raining heavily, and after a week of getting used to the place she had come to the conclusion that no one had even checked the place out. Forks, Washington was the American equivalent of England, without the war torn aura.

Once she fully settled in, she went to the local high school. Only to find out she was fully registered. They had been waiting for her to come.

Luckily, she wasn't the only newcomer. The chief of the coppers had decided to live with her father, and was attending as well.

Isabella Swan.

Unfortunately, most of the eyes were on her alone. A foreigner who lived alone and rode a motorcycle to school everyday.

The teachers pegged her as a rebel, the students a bad girl.

Still, it wasn't all bad.

She got to experience a relatively _normal_ high school life. At least until lunch.

She decided to sit outside, and that was when she spotted _them_. Inhumanly beautiful, elegant, and had a strange aura about them. Which is what sent warning signs up her spine.

She ate her lunch quickly and headed straight for the library. It wouldn't do to set herself apart any more than she already had.

She didn't know she had done just that by fleeing the cafeteria.

* * *

"What is it Edward?" asked Roselie.

"That black haired girl we just passed..."

"Yes?" pressed Alice.

"I couldn't read her mind. At all."

"You're probably just imagining it," said Emmett.

Edward had been growing increasingly lonely and hungry of late. One could easily be solved, but the other...

Edward pretended the others didn't notice that fact. Even though he knew full well that they were worried about him.

After all, it was almost impossible to hide things from someone who read minds all day long.

Until he spotted another girl he couldn't read. Chief Swan's daughter. He could guess what she could be thinking through the other people at her table.

Bella had taken notice of the Cullens. Especially Edward.

_Chances of getting laid just shot up..._

* * *

Harriet really didn't want anything to do with the Cullens. Subtle questioning had provided names to the inhuman people she saw. Now her only question was what the hell were they?

She got on Dogstar, and the hairs on her neck prickled. Someone was looking at her.

"Adjust side mirrors. Find who's staring at me intently Dogstar," she whispered.

The mirror on her right moved under her hand. Edward Cullen. From what she had learned, he was the only one who was still single in that group.

She shivered. The last thing she wanted was some inhuman creep stalking her.

Dogstar sped away before Cullen could get any closer. He could sense the boy's true nature as well.

Once she reached her home, she promptly brought up the wards she created. There was no way he was getting into her house unopposed.

Edward Cullen found out where Harriet lived, and decided to pay a visit. She was far more interesting than Bella.

The closer he got the house, the more he felt an odd prickling sensation.

Suddenly the upstairs window opened. Harriet poked her head out, took one look at him an scowled.

"Get lost! I am NOT interested!" she yelled out.

That shocked him. How did she know?

"You have five seconds before you are shot. I suggest you run."

Seeing the disbelief in his eyes, she had a feral grin. She reached down, not once leaving his face and pulled out a military issued gun. And from the way she was aiming it at him, she knew how to use it! Before he could run, she took aim. He heard the distinct click of the safety being taken off, and bolted.

He wasn't thinking clearly, since instead of running like a normal human would, he flitted.

Harriet lowered her gun.

There were very few humanoid creatures who could run like that. And even fewer who could have heard the distinctive click of the safety.

Which narrowed the choices. It would take little time to figure out _what_ exactly the Cullens were.

* * *

Harriet took the weekend off from homework to go to the nearest bookstore. Anne had at least stranded her in a place that was near a magical alley.

She found the book she wanted, and paid.

By noon she was in a small cafe reading her purchase.

(If you're wondering, she had found the magical version of the book Bella reads later.)

"Huh. The 'cold ones' eh? Well that narrows my choices down to just one."

She grinned.

"Edward Cullen, you are toast."

* * *

Monday was rather interesting. Edward Cullen had taken the day off. It seemed that Bella Swan had taken offense to this.

Harriet decided to talk to the only other girl who was an outcast.

"You'd be better off avoiding him. He's not worth the headache," she advised.

"But he's so interesting."

"You mean fascinating. The only reason you are even interested in him is because you can't figure him out," retorted Harriet.

Bella gave her a stubborn look.

"I am not giving up. You aren't going to scare me away from him," said Bella defiant.

She could see a losing battle when she saw one.

"Forget it. When you finally figure out what he is, then don't come crying to me," she snapped.

"Wait! You know what he is?"

Harriet gave the girl a scathing look.

"It took me a day to figure out what he is. The idiot wasn't even trying to hide it that well."

Bella clearly wanted to know what he was. She had only begun to suspect the truth.

"I am not telling you."

"You're in love with Edward! Admit it!"

Harriet gaped at the girl. Was she really that blind?

"I hate to break it to ya girl, but I wouldn't touch him with a ten meter pole. Stalkers really aren't my type."

"Edward is NOT a stalker!" hissed Bella.

Harriet looked incredulously at the girl. She was joking, right?

"Well if it wasn't him at my house last night, then someone else was about to get shot," said Harriet annoyed.

"Don't you _dare_ shoot my Edward!" growled Bella.

Now Harriet was convinced. This brat was nuts! She had an unhealthy obsession with vampires!

"Either you wake up from your delusions, or I am going to give you nightmares worse than one induced by Freddy Kruger," retorted Harriet.

Clearly Bella wasn't a horror movie fan, because she just looked confused.

* * *

Harriet was about to leave the school on Wednesday when she realized something big had just occurred. Every single car that belonged to the Cullens had been trashed, burned and ruined to the point of no return. Further inspection of Dogstar revealed that his auto guidance cord had been taken off.

Harriet growled.

The only reason Dogstar would go postal would be if someone had deliberately messed with him. And whoever had tried to ruin his starter had no idea what they were doing.

"Edward Cullen! Where the bloody hell are you?" she snapped.

And there Edward was.

"Look pretty boy, if I _ever_ catch you trying to mess up my bike again, I will rip your head off. Am I clear?" she snarled.

Edward winced. But only Harriet noticed.

"Have fun flitting back, bastard."

Harriet carefully put Dogstar in neutral and started him up. Dogstar clearly wasn't feeling well, so she drove. Seeing the shock in Edward's face made it worth it.

* * *

Rosalie turned to Edward with a scowl. Thanks to his insistence of attempting to woo a girl who clearly had no interest, they had lost their rides.

The only one who had managed to save their ride was Alice, and that only because she had Seen swift retribution.

So Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper all piled in Alice's car. Edward would have to walk home.

Edward was stumped. He was sure he had removed the starter from the motorcycle. Once Harriet had no ride home she should have either walked or pushed her bike home. Which was when he would have driven up and offered to give her a ride home.

Instead fifteen minutes after he messes with her bike, he hears the distinct sound of _his_ car alarm.

Now he had to get a new one. The only thing he wanted to know was what had destroyed their cars? No human could destroy a car like this in fifteen minutes. And there weren't any vampires aside from their clan in a hundred miles.

And upon further inspection revealed odd shape claw marks. What bothered him was that they almost looked lupine in shape, but they were too big even for the werewolf population.

Perhaps he should talk to the werewolves.

* * *

Once she was home, she had Dogstar pull into the garage before she closed the door.

"You alright, Dogstar?"

"_Fine. That Cullen idiot didn't know where the starter was," _replied Dogstar.

"Luckily he only disconnected the auto-pilot. Hold still!"

Dogstar squirmed a bit while she reconnected the cord. Once she was done he sighed with relief.

"So what did you do to their cars? They looked trashed."

Dogstar gave her a wry grin.

"_First I flipped them over, then I clawed the crap out of them before I used those after burners from Starscream on their precious paint job."_

Harriet looked at her Autobot partner before she said "Well done. Clearly that idiot was trying to get a ride with me."

Dogstar started to howl with laughter. The chances of Edward Cullen getting a date from his partner were next to nill.

* * *

Harriet watched with interest as Edward Cullen attempted and failed to woo her. When it finally came to the vampire that she most definitely wasn't interested in him, he shifted tactics.

He went after Bella.

Normally this would bother her, but Harriet had actually realized that Bella Swan might actually be a stalker. On par with Rose from that comedy that Anne had introduced her to called **_Two and a Half Men._**

The more she watched Bella, the more she was convinced of this.

Still, it was amusing to watch Bella try and fail to figure out what Edward Cullen was.

Fortunately for Harriet, it seemed that the American Ministry had the _'Sparklepires'_ register their power. (Sparklepires was Anne's private nickname for this breed when Harriet asked her about them.)

Edward Cullen was a mind reader. He had the ability to read the minds of everyone around him. Alice could see the future, most likely from the Seer's blood in her. Jasper was an empath. Emmett had super strength that could only be matched by a newborn vampire.

It seemed that unlike regular vampires, the only way to kill a Sparklepire was to decapitate them. Which made things hard if Cullen got too obsessed.

Jennifer mentioned a party at La Push, which was near the reserve. Harriet was definitely interested in more ways than one.

"Well I'm in," said Harriet.

* * *

She arrived two hours early. Once there she met a few of the native people and struck up a conversation with them. Much to her relief, the werewolves of La Push immediately realized what she was. And what she could do when pissed off.

"I'm Jacob Black."

"Any relation to the Black family of Europe?" joked Harriet.

Jacob grinned. For a witch Harriet seemed like a lot of fun.

"Nope. Pure Indian all the way through. So what brings you to Forks?"

"Vacation."

Jacob looked incredulous.

"Vacation...here? Where it rains six days out of the week?"

Harriet made a face.

"I didn't chose the destination. My friends did. They said I had to spend at least six months away before I'm allowed back on base."

That startled Jacob.

"You're ROTC?"

"No, I'm a Major. Major Harriet Black at your service," she grinned.

"Black?"

"My godfather adopted me. His last name is Black."

Jacob and Harriet ended up hanging out after that. While she wasn't surprised he knew Bella, she was surprised that he had a long standing crush on her.

"What is it about that stalker twit that boys go nuts for?" asked Harriet.

"My guess? New blood. Everyone knows everyone here, and the new face is driving them wild."

"That would explain why Cullen honed in on me so fast."

"You should stay away from him. You have no idea what he's capable of."

Harriet mock thought about that.

"Let's see...inhumanly beautiful, able to hear from great distances, run at impossible speeds for humans, gold eyes, and stays away from daylight. Why should I stay away from the fanged stalker?" she mock scowled.

Jacob laughed.

"You know what he is don't you?"

"Please. Moron wasn't even trying hard to _hide_ what he is for those who know how to look. I bet you two hundred dollars that Bella figures out in less than a week."

Jacob shook on that with a grin. Neither noticed that Bella was nearby watching them in silence.

* * *

Bella confronted Harriet the next morning.

"Just _what_ is your problem?" she demanded.

_'Oh crap! I've found a female Malfoy!'_

"My _problem _is apparently YOU. You are a stalker in the worst sense of the word," said Harriet annoyed.

"What did you say to Jacob?"

"For the love of... We talked about motorcycles. And as for that creep Cullen, you can have him!"

Bella growled, and went to tackle Harriet when she moved away. Edward was nearby and saw what happened next.

Harriet threw Bella over her arm and pinned the girl's right arm behind her back.

"Listen, you little Emo brat, get this into your head. I...do...NOT...like...Cullen! The guy is so not my type!" said Harriet with a snarl.

Edward tried to school his expression when he heard her. He didn't know Harriet had seen it.

_That blockhead really thought he had a chance?_

It was still raining as they exited the school. Bella went to her beat down truck, which was parked a little too close to Dogstar. The girls were glaring at each other when they heard the shrill sound of tires. Harriet realized what was happening long before Bella.

A van was hydroplaning right towards them!

She grabbed the girl's arm. Even if she couldn't stand the brat, she wasn't going to let her get hurt. Everyone was mystified at the sound of firecrackers right before the van hit the truck.

Bella looked disoriented with Harriet's arm on her. Other than a mild case of confusion she was relatively unharmed.

The Cullens were very confused. Edward almost got hit by the van because he went in to save Bella and Harriet. Instead he looked the most confused.

How had Harriet and Bella escaped being crushed?

* * *

Harriet did not look happy. She had been forced to go to the hospital against her will by well meaning students and teachers. She loathed the smell of hospitals.

Dr. Cullen approached her to check her vitals.

"Don't bother. I got us out of there long before the damn thing hit," said Harriet.

Seeing his confused look, she gave one of her own.

"You mean to tell me _none _of your coven has figured it out? Seriously?"

Upon hearing the word coven, his eyebrows shot up.

"You should really tell your _son_ to be more discreet. It took me less than two days to figure out what you were. So long as you don't come after me, I won't bother you," said Harriet.

She jumped off the small bed and headed out to pay her bill. She didn't exactly have normal medical insurance.

* * *

Carlisle checked up on Harriet Black. Something was off about her. And it wasn't her pale coloring. It had bothered him so much that he had a blood test taken.

And the results surprised him greatly.

_Harriet Jamie Black_

_Blood type: A negative_

_Unknown toxin or poison present in blood. Unknown variable reminiscent of Snake Venom at alarming concentrations. Unknown genome found in blood. Suggest further testing. No diseases found._

When Carlisle saw one of the unknown genomes, his heart would have stopped...if he still had a beating one anyway.

He had seen it before when the humans first found out about strange characteristics in the blood. They had classified it as unknown, but Carlisle knew what it was.

Magic.

Harriet J. Black was a witch. And a powerful one, if the strain that was carried in her body showed up on a test as common as this.

Which meant really, really bad news if they pissed her off enough to come after them. Magic users had more ways to kill a vampire than a regular human. Though no one had tested the theory of whether the Killing Curse would work... Vampires were technically already dead.

He went straight home once his shift was over.

* * *

Harriet gave a cold smile to Edward, who now walked on eggshells around her. His _father_ must have figured out what she was from the few clues she handed to him. Either that or something showed up in her blood work that gave her away. She wasn't a complete idiot.

Too bad it didn't last long. Since Edward had finally been clued in on what she was, he took it as a sign they were meant to be.

From what she learned from Anne, there was a central coven that controlled the other Sparklepires called the Volturi. And they took it amiss if the secret got out. (Though this rule didn't apply to any other supernatural being such as werewolves, giants and apparently magic users.)

So he took his courting up a notch.

Unfortunately for him, Harriet did NOT want to pursue a relationship with a vampire. If she had to pick someone from Forks, she would go with Jacob. At least he wasn't showing any signs of stalking.

Some of the other students were heading to La Push on Saturday. Harriet immediately said she would be joining them. Why?

Jacob had told her of the 'no vampires' policy. She was all for it if it meant getting as far away from Edward Cullen as possible. If he didn't back off, and soon, she was going to get revenge.

Marauder style, that is.

Harriet zoned in on Jacob the second she arrived.

"Hello Wolf boy," she grinned.

"Hello Owl child," said Jacob. (Took a liking to Hedwig. Glyfie was back with the Autobots.)

"How was your school?" asked Jacob.

"Fang face decided to up his stalking to the next level. His _dad_ (she made quotation marks) finally clued him in."

"So what are you going to do?"

"If he doesn't back off... (she smirks) I'm going to get creative. _Very_ creative."

Jacob almost felt sorry for the Cullen clan.

They walked up to where Bella was waiting. Everyone seemed to think today was a perfect day to go surfing. (The water was almost below freezing, and the rain had kept the temperature below seventy year round.)

Jacob sat next to Bella.

"What are you, like stalking me?" asked Bella.

"No, that's your schtick, remember?" said Harriet with a smirk.

"Are you surfing?" asked Jacob.

"Yeah, who couldn't resist freezing cold water and cloudy skies?" asked Harriet. (Hated cold.)

"Definitely not," said Bella. (Also hated cold.)

"You guys should keep Bella company. Her date bailed," said Jessica.

"What date?" asked one of the boys.

"She invited Edward."

Harriet made gagging sounds.

"Seriously? What do you see in that creep?" asked Harriet.

"He's not a creep!" protested Bella.

Jacob and the others watched the exchange with interest.

"He's pale like some computer nerd who stays indoors, he has unhealthy stalker tendencies and he tried to ruin my bike. How is that not creepy?"

Jacob tried not to laugh at her 'computer nerd' comparison.

"You're just jealous that he's better looking than you," said Bella.

Harriet scowled.

"That's it. Next time I'm going to let you get crushed," said Harriet coldly.

"Oh, did I hit a sore spot?" asked Bella.

"No, it's just that I've had it with you. You're a whiny Emo brat. I mean would it kill you to smile more often? It's like you blame the world for your problems," said Harriet.

Harriet had noted with irritation that the others watched the exchange like a tennis match.

"Cullen's a freak anyway," said Mike.

"You got that right," said another guy.

"You guys know him?" asked Bella.

"The Cullens don't _come_ here," said one of the boys.

"I'm glad that there's at least _one_ place they aren't allowed to follow me," said Harriet.

She went to find a nice place to read. Jacob decided to try and soothe Bella's hurt feelings. She didn't like it that Edward refused to come.

Harriet went back alone, and when she got home she immediately looked up Web MD. Time to do some searching. She wrote a list and her grin grew more and more evil as it got longer. This would be fun!

* * *

Edward was stalking her again. This time she was prepared. She went up to Jessica and said with a perfectly straight face, "Is it just me or do the Cullens look paler than usual?"

The gossipy girl took the hint and it wasn't long before Harriet's revenge took off.

At first Edward couldn't believe what was happening. Harriet had started a nasty series of rumors about his family.

As he sat at the table miserable, he told the others what she had said about them.

"So what's the problem? She's just making up fake rumors to satisfy the masses," said Rosalie.

Edward gave her a blank look as he told her _what_ Harriet was saying about them.

"She's saying that you (he points to Rosalie) are anorexic, narcissistic and possibly diabetic. You (he points to Emmett) are still under the effects of early steroid use from your formative teenage years. You (he looks at Jasper) have been abused since you were younger and only Alice can safely touch you without you snapping. You (he looks to Alice) are a very strange schizoid," Edward said with a straight face.

(Alice was positively _gleeful_ about her diagnosis. Compared to the others it was relatively friendly.)

"And what about you dear brother?" asked Rosalie in a sweet tone that spelled doom.

Edward made a rather...unique...face. If Rosalie had to say, she was swear he looked horrified.

"I'm bulimic with early onset AIDs. And I have an unhealthy obsession with female clothes, so I'm possibly a transvestite or still in the closet."

Alice covered her mouth. She looked like she wanted to burst out laughing. Emmett didn't have such composure. He started cracking up. Even Rosalie and Jasper cracked a grin. Compared to Edward they had gotten off light!

Alice caught Harriet's eye and she winked. She started snickering behind her hand.

Harriet wasn't surprised when Alice walked up to her.

"You want to know why and how."

"Yup!" said Alice cheerfully. While a bit miffed that Harriet did that, she did think the ones about Edward were funny.

Harriet grinned.

"If Edward had quit stalking me I wouldn't have bothered. As for how... (her grin widens into a smirk) I looked up certain believable disorders on Web MD. That, and I know that some Seer's are often misdiagnosed with schizophrenia, epilepsy or are declared insane."

Alice grinned at her.

"You and the others however... I have nothing against you. Edward just brought out my more mischievous side."

Alice laughed with her. Harriet's mischievous side was a force to be feared!

Harriet saw Edward and Bella walk off into the woods. So the girl finally knew the truth. Not her problem.

Since Alice knew about Harriet, she invited the girl to join their table.

Rosalie and Emmett weren't too happy, and Jasper could barely put up with her.

"Look, it was nothing personal. I was tired of that idiot stalking me," said Harriet, her hands up in surrender.

"Why can't I feel anything from you?" asked Jasper in a strained voice.

"Occulmency. Same reason why the idiot couldn't read my mind. It has a side effect of dampening emotions to a point where an Empath can't read them. It's mostly used to stop someone from using Legilmency," said Harriet promptly.

"So how long are you staying here?" asked Rosalie frostily.

"Chill, blondie. I'm only here for vacation. And no, I didn't pick this location," said Harriet.

"Why are you on vacation?" asked Emmett.

"Basically...I joined the Royal Air Corps two years ago. A few months ago I defeated the man who killed off my parents and almost half of Europe. And not once have I ever left England except for 'survival training'. My friends decided I needed a vacation."

"Wait, how old are you?" asked Jasper. He had done a mental calculation of her age. She couldn't be more than seventeen.

"I joined at fifteen. Never regretted that decision once, even through the hell my training officer put me through. Leon has an...interesting sense of humor."

Finding out Harriet had been in the military cooled some of Jasper's dislike of Harriet. Alice cheered up immediately.

"So what's the scoop with England?"

"Right now we're trying to recover from a war. It'll be slow going, but the atmosphere is probably cheerful now."

"So do you fly?" asked Emmett.

"Yup. I fly an EF2000 Typhoon. I'm a natural at flying."

Emmett grinned. As they talked, the Cullens started to lose some of their natural worry. Harriet made no threatening moves or gestures. Quite the opposite in fact. Her expression was very open, and she was completely honest to the point of being blunt.

It was clear from their brief chat that Harriet Black had no issues with vampires. She wouldn't come after them unless provoked. That caused most of their fears to subside.

* * *

Harriet scowled. There were rumors of a killer on the loose nearby. A few days later the killer was confirmed human.

_Or at least humanoid enough to pass as human,_ thought Harriet with a frown.

Her week had been shot to hell on Monday. Edward and Bella (or as Harriet called them the Power Stalker Duo) had officially come out as a couple. Finding out Edward was a vampire hadn't taken away Bella's bizarre fascination with him.

Still, Harriet had been given a standing invitation to the Cullen house. Alice just had to give her the coordinates. She would meet them all properly on Saturday.

Harriet checked her clothes. While she trusted the Cullen clan to a point, she wasn't taking chances. Inside her shirt was a small wand holster that would allow her to fire without drawing it. It was spelled so that it would be impossible to snap it in half. Hedwig would fly above as a scout. Inside her boots were two razor sharp knives and a thin wire that could cut through bone. The wire was disguised as an ornamental piece.

She was fully prepared in case something were to happen.

As she walked past the large mirror near the door (it was set up to show someone coming in without them seeing her first) she paused.

_Is my chest growing smaller?_

She shook her head. Surely she was imagining that. Still, if it was true then it meant the potion was finally wearing off. It had been five months.

She shrugged and went to Dogstar.

"Remember, the code is _werewolf attack_."

"_You got it partner. So why are we going to meet a house full of inhuman creatures who could eat you?"_

"One, because we were invited. And two, if they know I won't attack then they won't bother me as much. I think."

* * *

Carlise was nervous, and rightly so. A potentially dangerous witch was coming to visit. One who had a problem with his youngest 'son'.

At least Edward had promised to behave.

They heard her long before they saw her. Her engine wasn't exactly quiet.

"So this is your house. More open than I would have thought," said Harriet calmly.

So far so good. No overt signs of hostility. Then again, according to Alice, Harriet had absolutely nothing against non humans.


	6. Chapter 6

Harriet noticed the tense atmosphere around the Cullen house. So they were afraid of her? That was...interesting.

Well...everyone aside from Alice anyway.

"Well this is certainly a surprise. Shouldn't our roles be reversed?" asked Harriet with a wry grin.

Alice couldn't take it anymore and glomped her. Much to the shock of the other Cullen family, she laughed.

Once Alice let her go, Harriet fixed her with an amused look.

"So you're a Seer, right?"

Alice nodded.

"Can you tell me when this blasted potion is due to wear off?"

Her eyes became slightly glazed. And her grin widened.

"It will wear off roughly during our next baseball game. And you'll be there with us."

That seemed to relax the others. Carlise did look slightly confused though.

"I thought witches hated vampires?"

Harriet snorted.

"One, I'm not a witch. Two, my uncle happens to be a werewolf, and I happen to like him. And three, so long as none of you try to kill me in any way, we'll get along fine."

"If you're not a witch, then what are you?" asked Rosalie.

"Someone who was unfortunate enough to get pranked. A pair of red haired twins slipped me a rather surprising potion and I got stuck like this," said Harriet.

"What kind of potion?" asked Carlise.

"Stalker-boy reads minds, right?" asked Harriet to Alice. Alice nodded.

"Then why would I ruin my fun by telling you know when I could see the look on his face when the potion wears off?"

Alice giggled. She had seen the look on Edward's face, and it was hysterical. But it was no where near as funny as the look on Bella's.

Once they realized that yes, Harriet had magic but bore no grudge against non-humans, they got along fine. Alice seemed to love Harriet, and Harriet enjoyed Alice's company. Jasper seemed to relax around her too, if only because she was willing to discuss military tactics with him.

Carlise was willing to write to Neville, who had become very bored while Harriet was gone. It seemed that even though he was in high demand at the N.E.S.T. Base, no one had given him anything more challenging than a broken arm.

Apparently, since he was the youngest Healer on base he had to work his way up to the harder cases.

This would cheer him up immensely.

* * *

Bella arrived at Edward's house and scowled. No one had told her that her rival Harriet would be there. Even if her motorcycle appeared stranger than usual.

Edward's face perked up. Harriet had come today? Why hadn't Alice or Emmett called him? He failed to note that the 'bike' was glaring at him. Unfortunately Harriet had told him he couldn't destroy another car unless provoked.

Edward brought Bella inside. She seemed impressed with the house. Her face darkened when she heard Harriet's voice talking to Jasper in the kitchen.

Harriet looked up from her conversation with Jasper to scowl.

"Hello Edward, Bella," she said coolly.

Alice giggled. Everyone noted the drop in temperature as Bella and Harriet glared at each other.

"I better get going. Hedwig would be angry if I stayed too long," said Harriet finally.

Alice and Jasper looked disappointed. (One because she had hoped to turn Harriet into a dress up doll, and the other because it was the most interesting conversation he had had in years.)

Carlise walked her to the door.

"You are more than welcome to join us for our game next time it storms," he said.

Harriet's face brightened. A game sounded like fun!

"Count me in."

* * *

Jacob was bored.

Harriet had gone to the freaks house, and she refused to let him have a look at Dogstar. It wasn't fair!

Besides it wasn't like he was going to ruin her bike!

He heard someone come down the road. It was Harriet. He waved and she slide smoothly beside him.

"So how was the freak show?" he asked calmly.

She then did something he didn't expect. She glared at him with an ice cold look.

"I _detest_ the word freak. Even if it is aimed at a nonhuman. If you say that word to describe someone again, I will slap you, hard."

Jacob shivered at her tone. He had no doubt that she would follow through. She looked really pissed off at him right now.

"Fine. How was it at the Cullen's?" he asked again.

"Boring, but I came prepared. Had to leave early because the Stalker duo came in," said Harriet, her anger still there.

Jacob took the hint and backed off.

"See you later Harriet," he said, eager to run. Her anger was palpable in the air.

She nodded curtly, and Dogstar sped off. He went so fast that Chief Swan couldn't give her a speeding ticket because he couldn't see who was driving.

* * *

A month came and went. Harriet noted with delight that her chest was indeed growing smaller every day. And every day she would feel more and more like her old self.

Unfortunately, Bella noticed the same thing, and made some very snide comments under her breath. So Harriet returned the favor and cast some rather unpleasant spells in her direction.

Bella ended up labeled with a major gas or intestinal problem, because she farted nearly every class. Even Edward started to sit away from her, even though he had a good idea who was doing it.

Finally, Harriet had almost had enough. Even when Bella learned that Harriet wasn't going to return next year, she still held a grudge against her.

Why? Because Edward tended to notice Harriet faster than he did Bella. And it pissed her off.

* * *

The weather had a thunderstorm forecast. Alice called Harriet and gave her the directions for where they would be playing baseball. It was far enough that they wouldn't get wet, but close enough that the thunder would cover the sound of the bat.

Even though she didn't have the strength that the vampires did, Harriet offered to catch the ball. Instead they had her stand behind the batter. Alice promised not to throw so hard that it would kill her.

Harriet had fun with the game, even if the Stalker Duo was there. Bella looked miffed that Harriet was participating in the game and she got stuck being the Umpire.

They were so caught up in the game that even Harriet was annoyed when Alice called out. Apparently the other vampires who had been causing trouble were heading their way.

Suddenly Harriet felt sick to her stomach. Alice nodded to the woods. The Cullens were more interested in protecting Bella than wondering why Harriet ran into the woods.

She threw up. The colors in the resulting bile were rather odd. She kept it up for another minute, before her stomach finally calmed down enough. She wiped what was left off her mouth, then noticed something had changed.

She looked down. Her chest had become flat as a board. She discreetly checked between her legs.

She held back the cheer in her throat. The potion had finally worn off! She wasn't Harriet anymore!

* * *

Alice couldn't wait for Edward to realize who that boy who was walking in their direction was. Or better yet, Bella's reaction.

The three vampires came into view. They all had crimson eyes, a sign that they drank human blood regularly. One of them held up a ball.

"This yours?"

"Thank you," said Carlise.

The boy behind him snorted. Carlise was apparently surprised to see him there.

The boy waited patiently for the other vampires to leave. He had a bone to pick with Bella.

Too bad he wouldn't have that opportunity for long. The wind blew from behind, carrying two distinct scents.

Human and Magic. The other vampires recoiled when the scent of magic hit them.

"Get lost before I get cranky," said the boy. His wand was at the ready.

The other vampires reluctantly moved away. Edward and Bella stared at him. He looked so familiar.

Alice snickered.

"Did the Chinese not agree with you?" she asked, snickering.

"Hardly. The stupid thing took longer to wear off than I expected," replied the boy calmly. He turned to Jasper.

"If you want, I can get you my new address so we can continue to talk about military tactics," he said.

Bella gasped.

_"Harriet?"_

He smirked at her. His emerald eyes highlighted his face quite well.

"It's actually _Harry._ Someone played a prank on me and turned me into a girl for six months."

The poleaxed look on Edward and Bella's face made the entire thing he had gone through worth it. Alice began laughing outright. Carlise looked confused.

Rosalie, Emmett, and Esme all started snickering at the look on Edward and Bella's face.

"Anyway, I don't think we have time to debate a potion fiasco. Those three didn't look like they would give up without a fight," said Harry.

"I'll take Bella back to the house," said Edward.

"Not a chance stalker boy. Dogstar and I can get her in and out of the town and at the house faster than you can."

"Your bike?" he said incredulous.

Harry whistled sharply. His bike's gears began to grind as it turned into it's wolf form.

"My bike is about as normal as I am," he said dryly.

* * *

Bella reluctantly got on behind Harry. Edward was still in shock that the girl he had a major thing for had become a boy. A boy who, much to his ire, looked better than he did. Bella seemed a little too comfortable behind him. Harry paid her no notice, almost like he could care less that the second prettiest girl in the school was hugging his waist a little too tightly.

(If you're wondering who was ranked the prettiest in the school, it was Harriet. Rosalie was third, since she was clearly involved with Emmett which made her off limits.)

* * *

Edward didn't drive to Bella's house. Alice made him sit in the car with her.

While she drove at a rather sedate pace back to the house, Edward mused about the way Bella reacted to Harriet...or Harry as it were.

She smelled far too interested in him than he would have liked. It was like the only reason she hadn't jumped him was because Harry radiated clear disinterest. That, or Bella still hadn't come to terms that Harriet was now a boy.

Alice tried not to laugh. Edward didn't know that someone else was going to have Harry. She had seen a girl so very like herself. Almost like a little sister. A girl with pale gold hair and a dreamy expression. She had radishes in her ears, and the most interesting necklace Alice had ever seen.

She wondered if Harry would tell her who the girl was. She looked like someone who would be fun to talk to.

* * *

Harry quickly and efficiently managed to get Bella to the Cullen's house without raising suspicion. Chief Swan didn't realize that the person before him was a boy. He just thought Harriet had cut her hair and hadn't used a mirror.

Bella wasn't too happy about how Harry had gotten her out of the house for at least two weeks.

She couldn't believe that her father bought the whole trip to England lie.

Harry had smirked behind her father's back.

"What are you smiling about?" asked Bella, curious.

"Oh, if I wanted to go back to England, I could do it in a heartbeat and never have to get a job."

Seeing her confusion, his smirk widened.

"I happen to be a Duke as well as a Major in the Royal Air Force."

Her jaw had dropped. Harry was a duke?

"Exactly _how_ rich are you?"

"Last time I checked, my net worth was in the billions. The Queen was very generous," said Harry with a shrug. He had a lot in his trust, and he didn't know what to do with that. It wasn't like he had a use for his wealth.

Harry took them to Cullen house without stopping. There wasn't a hint of a breeze, as he slowed Dogstar down.

Alice was waiting.

"So how are we going to get her out of town? As far as any knows, she's off to England."

Seeing the surprise on their faces, Harry grinned.

"I happen to have enough connections that I could have easily sent her there with little to no fuss. And she would be completely anonymous."

"Can we still send her there?" asked Edward.

Harry didn't miss the look Edward sent him. He felt like shuddering.

"While she would be safe, I guarantee you she wouldn't like it. The atmosphere is dreadful and it almost always rains."

Bella scowled. Harry wondered if she had caught the look Edward had given him.

* * *

She hummed in amusement. Her father had sent her to America to learn more about the large robots that had been seen fighting during the war. She knew that he was only using that as an excuse to get her out of England.

They were planning to pass a law that would force the survivors to marry faster. The only ones that wouldn't feel it were those of mundane origins. Half-bloods and pure bloods, however, were fair game.

So her father had shipped her off to the Royal Navy. Who, after only six months of dealing with her oddness, had shipped her off to America without a word. Now she was at a rather dreary muggle base whose only purpose seemed to be guarding the odd stone circle several floors beneath a mountain in Colorado.

If it wasn't for the fact that she had a sixth sense for when something very interesting was about to happen, she would have caused more damage than she already had.

As it was, she was banned from anything electronic unless there was someone with her who knew how to fix it. And no, she wasn't allowed to play with her tiny Autobot that Anne had given her.

She couldn't wait for whatever to happen to happen already.

* * *

Harry reluctantly went with Bella. It was very, very obvious to him that both of the stalkers had zeroed in on him, even though he was clearly a male again.

(And he had already proven that fact to Jasper when the boy had followed him to the loo. The look on his face had been pretty funny.)

Alice was antsy. There was no other way to describe it. So when she brought out a picture of a girl that Harry was very familiar with, he tried not to gape.

"You know Luna?" he asked in surprise.

"That's her name? I've been getting visions of her with you for a week."

Harry winced.

"Luna is possibly the only female in my school who wasn't bat shit insane. If anything, she is probably the only girl I would willing talk to without someone twisting my arm."

"Why is that?" asked Bella, starting to feel jealous.

"Because she is the only person I have ever met who has seen me for who I am, and not for my assets."

Seeing the look of confusion, Harry elaborated.

"Some girls were after me for my inheritance, my fame, my looks or god forbid all three."

Harry shuddered, remembering the nightmare he had to go through when he reached puberty. That was when the open season had unofficially been announced on him. It had driven him up the wall.

Even Hermione, to a lesser degree, had chased him. That had given him nightmares of a different sort for weeks.

* * *

Harry was not happy. While they had taken care of the biggest threat against Bella (apparently the hunter had deemed him too dangerous to go after) he still had a problem.

Edward seemed intent on following him.

Not two weeks after Bella's birthday (which had been a complete disaster) Edward had dropped her, claiming he was trying to protect her from himself.

Harry was willing to believe the lie, which it obviously was, but Edward had used the excuse to follow him.

If it wasn't for the fact that he would be shot on sight if he entered the base without clearance, he would have followed Harry all the way to the N.E.S.T. Base.

As it was, Harry was almost to the point of begging Anne to let him kill the damn vampire.

"No Harry, you can't kill him. His fangirls would never forgive you," said Anne in definite amusement.

"Like that would stop me. That bastard has been haunting me for over two months now!"

Anne grinned evilly.

"Well there is another option."

"I'm willing to hear it, so long as he doesn't catch wind!" said Harry vehemently.

"There is a position open in Colorado Springs. It's in a very super secret military base that has apparently discovered a way to go to different planets instantaneously. We could use you as an infiltrator to soothe the fears of the 'Bots."

Harry blinked.

"How do you know about this base if it's so secret?" he asked in surprise.

"He...(she looked at Ratchet pointedly) has an unhealthy obsession with MMORPGs. That one (she looks at Ironhide with definite amusement) has a soap opera addiction. Prime has been caught repeatedly on a site that hosts _Star Wars_ and _Star Trek_ discussions, and last I heard, his username is MatrixMaster. Jazz has been busted while looking through supposedly classified government files. He was the one who found out about the base."

Harry, who had been staring, held up a hand in absolute amusement.

"So let me get this straight. All of the Autobots are internet junkies?"

"I suppose so."

Harry couldn't help his reaction. He started to laugh uncontrollably. Clearly he had missed a lot while he was off base.

Both of them didn't even flinch when the alarms went up. It had become so common over the past month for the proximity alarm to go off that almost no one noticed it anymore.

Lennox looked annoyed, because he was tired of the 'sparklepire' hanging around the outskirts of the base. Occasionally Edward would make it as far as one of the land mines, but it wasn't that often.

Everyone on base just wished the idiot would step on one and end the nonsense.

And to top it all off, the vampires weren't allowed in the military. Werewolves, yes, vampires no. Unless they had been in the military _before_ being turned.

Something that did not apply to Edward. He had been deathly ill when Carlise turned him. The only Cullen who could join Harry on base was the newest one, Jasper.

* * *

Harry winced when he spotted Edward. He couldn't even leave the base without him following. And Edward didn't seem to really care that he was a boy.

He was obsessed with him.

Anne had had enough. She contacted the secret base and asked for a favor. An exchange as it were.

General Hammond was more than willing to listen to her suggestion. In exchange for some back up in case their base was invaded, they would take Harry (and hopefully ditch his unrelenting stalker) for information and technology.

Everyone who worked at the NEST base knew full well that they were outclassed against the robots. Every time they went to deal with a Decepticon threat, two more bodies were buried with honors.

They needed some help.

* * *

Harry waited until the next supply plane into Colorado. The only people who knew anything about the exchange were the Autobots and Anne. She had arranged it without telling anyone exactly _where _he was being reassigned.

Harry took two bots with him. Dogstar, who would be his main mode of transportation on the ground, and a new Autobot that he had accidentally turned.

While he could keep a lid on his new ability to turn any electronic device into a Bot, sometimes it got away from him.

Which is what happened without warning during a phone call to Hermione in Wolverhampton. In the middle of his conversation, she accidentally let slip about the marriage laws that were being drafted by the Ministry. Harry made had made a smart remark about not learning from their mistakes when a fat blue streak hit the laptop.

The effect was instantaneous. The laptop shifted into a small Autobot with wide green optics.

Harry had smacked himself in disbelief. Anne, who had heard the noise of something shifting, had come in and face vaulted.

"Harry, why did you turn that poor laptop into a bot?" she asked calmly when she got up.

"Anne, do you think I have any control over this power?" he whined back.

Harry looked at the new Autobot in exasperation and asked politely to be put back on the phone with Hermione.

She had been less than amused about the whole situation.

The tiny laptop waited eagerly for it's new partner to name it. It was still very new, so it couldn't think of a good name for itself. Harry had been too surprised by the turn of events to even think of one. So Anne did the honors.

"From now on your name is...Shoto!"

Harry and the laptop gave her a confused look.

"Shoto...Short circuit in Japanese."

The two shrugged in unison. It was as good a name as any.

"Now what form do you want to take Shoto?" asked Anne.

Hedwig and Glyfie, who had felt the surge, flew in and rested on Harry's shoulders. It seemed to blink, before it shifted again. This time it resembled an owl of sorts. Harry tried and failed to contain his mirth.

Then again, with his newfound discovery that yes, any Autobot who didn't have anything to do tended to gravitate very quickly to the internet, he supposed it was a fitting name. Shoto gave Hedwig a strange hoot like sound, to which the owl replied imperiously.

Glyfie seemed to act the same way around Hedwig, so Harry assumed it was the owl, and not his imagination. Hedwig tolerated the little elf owl as a nest mate.

Shoto looked about half the size of Hedwig and only slightly bigger than Glyfie.

Anne seemed almost amused by the whole situation.

"I hope you get that problem under control soon, James."

"You and me both."

The alarm began to blare. A Decepticon had been sighted in Norway, and they were about to be sent out.

"Shoto, you may as well come with me. If you're anything like Dogstar, then you'll get some extra parts and get bigger."

Shoto hooted again, and sat on his shoulder the entire time. No one paid any mind to him, since they were so used to seeing Hedwig on his shoulder.

Dogstar on the other hand, noticed Shoto immediately.

"_Another one?"_

"Don't ask. Apparently the All Spark has a mind of it's own."

Optimus, who heard the comment, snorted. Or did the robot equivalent of a snort.

"_Any energy of sufficient power or ability has a mind of it's own."_

Harry acknowledged the truth of that.

It took less time than they would have thought to find and dispose of the Decepticon. No one really noticed that a majority of the parts went missing.

Or that the strange bird on Harry's shoulder was bigger than before.

* * *

Harry had been at the strange base for over two weeks and there had been neither hide nor hair of Edward Cullen.

And frankly, Harry could go his entire life without seeing his persistent stalker.

There were very few people that out ranked him on the Stargate base. And out of those people, he had the utmost respect for Hammond and O'Neil.

* * *

"Welcome to Stargate Command, Major Black. I must admit, I am surprised at how young you are," said General Hammond.

"Most people are. I worked hard for this rank, General."

"Well I hope you are ready to get started right away. I'm putting you in charge of SG-3. You will head out to..."

Harry shouldered his pack, and made sure Dogstar was secure in his new spot. It had taken some doing, but Harry managed to put Dogstar on his bracelet as a key chain. Which meant the bot would be able to join him on interstellar missions.

It wasn't until Harry crossed the blue horizon of the gate that he realized just _who_ was on his team.

Luna Lovegood. Or as the others called her, Moon Girl. Harry didn't know whether it was because of her name or her spaced out attitude.

* * *

Harry felt like swearing. It was supposed to be a simple recon mission, and instead there were these snake people.

Which for some odd reason, made him sneeze like mad.

His mind paused. He had noticed that whenever Teal'c, the Jaffa who had switched sides, was nearby he would sneeze. But after a week of getting to know the man (and sneezing) the reaction stopped.

It had baffled the Medical officer in charge, because from what they could tell he had an allergic reaction of sorts to Gou'ald.

(That little tidbit had SG-1 cracking up. And the medical officers wondering if Harry was some sort of alien detector.)

Harry spotted a staff weapon on the ground. Like all newcomers, they had given him a basic run down of the things. He still couldn't aim properly.

Seeing no Jaffa nearby (they were three hills away, which meant his sneezing wouldn't alert them) he dashed out from his cover to get it.

And cursed.

The reason it wasn't in the hands of a Jaffa was because the power cells were damaged. Which made it all but useless.

At least, that was what his fellow team members thought.

He had an idea. He didn't know if it would work or not, but it was worth a try. They needed a distraction.

He concentrated on the damaged staff weapon in his hands. They began to glow a violent bright blue, and suddenly the staff bucked. A pair of glowing eyes stared at him before it suddenly shifted into a rather bizarre snake creature.

It looked at it's new master and waited for an order. Everyone but Luna stared at him in shock.

"_Go find the Gou'alds and absorb their staffs. Meet us at the gate when you're done."_

"_Yes, Master."_

The snake thing slithered over the hills and it wasn't long before the cries of shock and the blasts of the staffs was heard.

By the time Harry and the rest of SG-3 were at the gate, the snake was easily the size of an anaconda. It slithered up to Harry, who promptly placed the thing on his bracelet next to Dogstar.

They went to SGC, and within minutes Harry was in trouble.

It turned out Anne had forgotten to mention that Harry had absorbed the All Spark almost a year ago.

Which lead to a rather annoying misunderstanding.

* * *

"Are you sure Teal'c?" asked Jack.

"I sense no symbiote in him O'Neill."

"Then what the hell did those guys mean when they said he had a snake on him?"

"It wasn't a snake, it's was a transformed staff weapon I picked up," growled James from his bed. It had been rather annoying to be locked up just because he managed to get his team off world without getting too badly hurt.

"Yeah, well where is it?"

"I can't show you without being authorized too. Just call Colonel Anne. If she says it's alright to talk, then I will."

"What the hell are you into?"

"Let me put it this way. You guys aren't the only ones here in the US who are dealing with interstellar travelers on a daily basis. And Teal'c isn't the only alien refugee currently on the planet."

Seeing the disbelief in their eyes, James grinned.

"Call the Colonel. She's the only one who can explain."

James ended up stuck in a holding cell for a week. In that time he had learned that whenever someone mentioned a snake they apparently meant whatever it was that infested Teal'c.

Which meant for the entire week he was stir crazy. When he told them to contact the one who sent him, they forgot to ask for the codes to get through. And no one had thought to ask _him_ if he knew.

Fortunately for his sanity, James had a backup plan.

No one was watching, as James had made it very clear that he wouldn't leave without at least taking Luna with him. So they only put a few guards outside his cell and ignored him for the most part.

Which was exactly what he needed.

"Alright Shoto, since you and Dogstar aren't going stir crazy, can I assume you two have an internet connection?"

"_Correct, Mon Capitan."_

"Then e-mail that scatterbrained Colonel and tell her to get her arse down here and explain! Tell her to bring a few bot's too, so we can sort this nonsense out already!"

"_Done and done. Can we play poker now? I keep losing in the online tournaments."_

"Fair enough. Deal."

For the next few hours James and Shoto played poker. It wasn't until someone came in with food that they found out about the laptop.

"Where the hell did you get that?" asked Jack.

"Please, think about who you are asking. I have almost everything but my weapons, which as you can recall I turned over when this whole mess started. Besides, this thing can't get a wireless signal out under all this dirt."

"Fair enough. Can it install viruses though?"

"Jack, I barely have enough know how to fix my wireless card when this thing crashes. How the hell am I supposed to launch a virus in here?"

"Point. Anyway, here's your dinner."

"Thanks. Hopefully this mess will be fixed soon enough. I'm bored!"

Jack laughed at the truth of it. While he liked James, he also knew there was nothing he could do until he started talking. At least the kid had enough sense to just let them do their jobs.

* * *

"Colonel Denise, I presume?"

"Hello again General Hammond," said Anne with an insane grin.

"I assume you're here to retrieve your operative."

"Not really now. If James had wanted out of here you guys wouldn't have been able to keep him for more than a few hours, if that. He just sent me an e-mail that told me I forgot to explain his rather unusual circumstances."

"He's the boy-who-lived. How more unusual can you get?" asked Jack.

"He can turn random electronics into robots," said Anne with a straight face.

Seeing the looks that passed between them she grinned.

"Alright, this started way back, and it's only recently that we have come into an alliance with them...but here's how it goes..."

Anne showed them the documents, tapes and proof that there were already aliens on Earth. She had even brought one with her as her escort, in the hopes of sorting out a misunderstanding.

That bot was Jazz.

Aside from the odd looks about the car in the embarkment room, no one really paid any attention to it. Until Anne whistled and the thing turned into a large robot.

In one of the greatest pranks of the century, Anne had pulled a fast one on SGC. James, who had been brought in halfway through, gave her a high five for the trick.

He had thought it a riot.

"Alright, while I can accept the giant robot and the fact that you already knew about the aliens, what the hell was up with your team's report?" asked General Hammond.

James looked at Anne with amusement.

"I'm calling her Sliva. Only thing I could come up with."

"Bring her out then. I want to see this snake."

With great amusement, James brought forth the staff weapon turned snake.

Sliva hissed out of boredom and curled around her master.

"Sliva, alt form now."

The snake collapsed in on itself, and turned into a very familiar form to SGC.

A staff weapon.

"I suppose it's a bit of irony that what you people call snakes ended up producing a serpent autobot," said James dryly.

Teal'c only stared at it.

"This is what caused all the problems? A staff weapon? I thought you turned a Za'at gun into snake," said Anne in disbelief.

"How do you know about those?" asked Jack.

"Conspiracy theorist. Only I try to keep mine somewhat believable on base," shrugged Anne.

In the end, a few things were resolved. One, there would be an Autobot stationed on base at all times (mostly James and his mini bots like Dogstar), which ended up being Jazz since he discovered it.

In return for allowing James to work off world again, they would keep the Autobots up to date on the SGC, and by extension allow Teal'c to talk to other aliens. It was a win-win.

And they ended up finding out why James always sneezed around Teal'c.

"Magic users in general are allergic to them," said Luna dreamily.

"What?" said Sam.

"Those with magic in their blood, enough to use most magical artifacts, are allergic to the false gods of Egypt."

"How do you know that?" asked Daniel. (Accepted most of what Luna said with a grain of salt.)

"Have you ever come across any tales of the false gods using anything like magic?"

Teal'c shook his head.

"None."

"That is because the magic viewed them as a threat long ago, and gave those who carried it a way to know who was a false god. The more magic a person has, the stronger the reaction."

"So the reason why you have a rather bad rash is because of Teal'c?" asked Sam.

"There are rare tales of people who have come to an agreement and work alongside the false gods, which means that eventually Harry and I will get over that reaction to Teal'c."

"What do you know, we have Gou'ald detectors," said Jack.

"Wonder why they never tried to take a magic user as a host?" asked Daniel, walking with same to the infirmary.

"Don't know," said Sam.

James, having heard the entire thing, spoke up.

"It's because our throat closes up and the symbiotes ability to heal doesn't cover an allergic reaction to them," said James dryly.

The two looked at him.

"Personal experience?" asked Daniel.

"I was separated on my last mission, remember? A system lord by the name of Set tried to use me as a host, but when my throat closed up they assumed I would die anyway. A minute after they left, it opened up again."

They stared at him.

"You were captured and almost made into a host?"

"Magic and Symbiotes do not mix," answered James, heading off to find a place to unwind.

* * *

James looked in on Sam, who had been taken over by a symbiote when they had come under fire before they were even on the planet five minutes.

"Well isn't this a reverse of situations. So who's your new guest?" James asked. He had used a bubble headed charm in the hopes that it would keep him from sneezing.

It did, to a point.

"She says her name is Jolinar," answered Sam.

"Mind if I talk to her for a moment?"

Sam blinked, and her eyes went silvery. Jolinar had taken over.

"So are you a Jaffa or something else? My allergies haven't been going off as much around you, so I'm curious."

"_I am a Tok'ra. I am not a Jaffa."_

"Ah. Are you friendlier to humans or something?"

"_We do not take unwilling hosts unless the need is great. I apologize for doing so to your friend, but I had no other options."_

"Did you ask Sam before you took over?"

"_She gave her consent."_

"Hang on a minute. I don't know why, but I actually believe you."

Sam took over again.

"Jolinar is the most polite alien I have met in a while."

"I can believe it. Something about her is different from the others. For one thing, her aura isn't as skewed as the Jaffa and System Lords I have run into."

* * *

"What's the verdict Jamesie?"

"I think Jolinar is telling the truth. She doesn't have a skewed aura, and from what I can tell she at least asks Sam before she takes over."

"And if she's not?" asked Hammond.

"Then she won't like how I react," said James coldly.

"Alright, we'll accept she's telling the truth for now. But if I see anything wrong happening, I will put her the hold again."

"Jolinar mentioned an assassin. Perhaps we should have Jazz on standby."

* * *

Jolinar seemed fascinated by James, and worried about Luna. Luna apparently knew more than she let on about the stars. Still, they had come to an agreement. Luna would quit popping up without warning and Jolinar would tell her more about the Tok'ra.

It was more than anyone else had gotten out of her at any rate.

For the next week James learned something important.

While his magic gave him a rather extreme reaction to Jaffa and Gou'alds, they produced relatively minor reactions to Tok'ra. In fact he only needed the bubble-head charm to speak to Jolinar without sneezing.

When he commented on it, Jack had grinned.

"Seems our detectors have a double purpose. They can tell friend from foe!" he grinned.

"Yet another reason I like these Tok'ra better," muttered James.

While fascinated by magic, Jolinar expressed no interest in having one as a host. Particularly when the power that James received from the All Spark acted up again.

He turned something Jolinar had made into another Autobot. Fortunately this one wasn't a big nuisance like Sliva. Everyone always jumped whenever the snake/staff came around. She had yet to master human language.

So not a week after coming to Earth, the assassin arrived.

James stunned the fake air man and threw him in the hold. There were enough wards to keep him there until they could figure out what to do with him.

* * *

Two weeks after capturing the man (who would be sent to a hospital that hosted Healers and doctors to see if they could remove the symbiote safely) the other Tok'ra arrived.

Which had set off another allergy attack in James, to his annoyance.

Jolinar looked relieved.

"So let me get this straight. You sent Sliva and Sen with the Tok'ra to be studied why?" asked Anne when she learned.

"Because I had noticed a tendency to Sliva and Sen to combine with each other and scare the hell out of people. Besides, this gives the Tok'ra an excuse to experiment on two bots that are relatively new. It was a gesture of peace."

"The fact that you can contact them in any place had no impact at all did it?" asked Anne dryly.

"I may have neglected to mention that I could contact them through the two, yes."

"Oh well. At least this gives the Bot's an inside look at the Tok'ra. I'm sure Jazz won't mind keeping base up to date on them. Optimus has been a bit put out that no one told him about the new aliens," laughed Anne.

"Tell him to grow a pair and get over it. I don't think we'll stay off the radar of the System lord for very long."

"We won't," said Luna, her eyes glazed over.

"I forgot about our little Seer. Hello Luna. What's the forecast?" asked Anne.

Anne and Luna got along like a burning building. They just clicked. (It didn't hurt that Anne was a longtime subscriber of the Quibbler and not the Prophet.)

"Pyramids in the sky shall appear. Destruction shall go hand in hand with salvation. A missed opportunity shall bring ruin to all. Oh, and there will be a thunderstorm tomorrow where you're at," said Luna.

Her Seer's blood kicked in at odd times, but at least she was easier to understand than most. James thought it was because Luna tended to speak like a Chinese fortune cookie instead of mystical mumbo jumbo. Ambiguous, but to the point.

"So tell the Bots to be ready for an invasion up top?"

"Yes."

Anne turned to James.

"Any luck controlling that odd ability?"

"So long as I use it regularly, it doesn't cause too much trouble. The bigger the thing I bring to life, the longer it goes away. I think the All Spark is firmly tied to my magic at this point," shrugged James.

"Well keep in mind that some air support wouldn't hurt."

"Which is why I go to places that hold decommissioned planes from the old days. I'm planning on buying an old MiG and a Lockheed SR."

"Finally found a use for all that money in your account, eh?"

James smirked.

"All they need to hear is that I have clearance and know how to fly. They don't need to know that I intend to bring them to life."

"You know the old planes might be ornery."

"So's Rachett, and we deal with him all the time."

"Point."

"So how are things on base?"

"Boring, aside from the rare missions to kill Decepticons."

"Has the government gotten on your case to get rid of them?"

"A few bureaucrats aren't going to tell me what to do. Besides, the Autobots are friends with enough magic users that even if the mundane get up to arms about something, they can find a place to hide in your lands. Hermione has worked up a clause in a contract with the Queen that states that you have authority over them while in Wolverhampton. The only way they can override that is to convince the Queen herself. Not even her Prime Minister can do anything about it, because he's an elected official."

"Sweet. Good thing the Queen trusts my judgment."


	7. Chapter 7

"_**To Harry James Potter (James Black)**_

_**This is a direct order from the Ministry of Magic. Inside this envelope is a list of suitable candidates for your consort. Please choose one and return to England Post Haste.**_

_**Signed..."**_

Harry stared at the list in disbelief. Luna showed up at his door, equally annoyed.

"I can't believe they actually went through with this nonsense. didn't they learn from the war?"

"One step forward, five steps back," replied Luna.

Harry scanned the list of females and gagged. He knew most of them, including Ginny. Then his eyes fell to the last name.

_Luna Lovegood_

"Hey Luna, what list did they give you?"

She showed him and a minute later he grinned evilly.

"Our names appear on each other's list."

Her eyes widened. Her father had sent an owl earlier that day in concern. He had sent her away to _avoid_ her getting caught up in that mess.

Harry smirked.

"Think your father will approve of what I have in mind?"

"Probably. He might get a laugh out of it as well."

* * *

"_Dear Mr. Lovegood,_

_As you are no doubt aware, the fools in charge have put into place the marriage laws. No doubt you have also learned that it applies to oversea personnel as well._

_Which is why I am proposing a solution to both our problems._

_Upon further inspection of the lists given to us, Luna and I both appear on the list..."_

Xenophilius Lovegood was many things, but an idiot wasn't one of them. Once he read Harry's rather ingenious solution to his growing worry, he started cackling.

And then sent a letter to Sirius to tell him of the plan.

* * *

"So you two are planning on spending a weekend in Vegas?" asked Jack.

"We've both been in America for over a year, and neither of us have really explored it. Besides, it'll only be for a month or so."

"And you two will return if we call? No questions asked?" said Hammond.

"On the first flight we can catch, or sooner," James assured him.

"Why do I have the feeling that there's something your not telling us?" said Sam.

"You'll find out eventually, but not today," smiled James.

The base wished them luck and told them to bring back some presents.

* * *

"Okay Luna, pick whichever one you want. I'll go find mine," said Harry.

"Actually Daddy sent something over before we left," said Luna.

It was a rather simple, yet expensive ring. It also belonged to a male.

"What's this?"

"Granddaddy's ring."

"Ah. Well why not. Anyway, I want you to be happy, so find a ring you like. I don't care how much it costs."

Luna beamed at him.

* * *

Sam passed by James' room, and paused. There was a letter left innocently out on the desk.

Normally she wouldn't be nosy, but the way those two had left had raised suspicions on the base.

She scanned the document and her eyes went up in surprise. She had solved the mystery that people had been placing bets on all week.

"Sir, you're not going to believe this..."

Jack read the letter and smirked.

"YES! I win a thousand!" crowed Jack.

"Sir?" asked Sam.

"I had a bet on them eloping!" answered Jack, off to collect his cash.

Daniel and Janet, it turned out, were out three hundred dollars. They had believed the two when they said they wanted to experience more of America.

But no one was paying up until the two returned and confirmed the rumor.

* * *

Once they got the ceremony out of the way (with pictures being sent to Sirius, Xenophilius and Anne) they did what any _newly married_ couple would do.

They gambled.

Harry came out of a few casinos with a new motorcycle and a boat. Luna had a string of good luck with the black jack tables.

By the time they returned, several people had spotted the rings on each of their right hands.

Jack clapped them both on the shoulder with a smirk.

"You two just won me over fifteen hundred dollars."

"Who found the letter?" asked James, not trying to hide it.

"Sam found it, but we were waiting for you two to come back before anyone was willing to pay up."

"What brought this on anyway?" asked Sam, not amused.

"The idiots back in charge in England set up some stupid marriage laws. This was the easiest way to get around them and not have to deal with someone we couldn't stand," shrugged James.

"Daddy caught wind of it early, which was why I was sent to the Royal Navy," said Luna.

"So you two really are...?" said Daniel.

"Officially hooked to each other? Yes. It didn't have anything on eloping, just that we had to get married," said James.

"That's barbaric!" said Sam.

"We know. Why else would we hit Vegas?" answered James.

"I thought there were rules against marriages with a superior officer," said Daniel.

"The rules only apply if the officer is in the same branch. There's nothing against marrying someone in a different one," answered Jack.

"She's water, I'm air. Besides, at least I can tolerate having her around."

* * *

Aside from the rather surprising news that James and Luna were now married (on paper at least), nothing much happened that month. Missions came and went, with the usual Gou'ald attacks.

Luna moved into James' flat, not that he minded. They rarely spent time there anyway.

After two months had passed, something strange happened.

Luna received word from her father that the marriage laws had been retracted. Apparently the Queen caught wind of them and forced the Ministry to get rid of them whether they liked it or not.

Upon hearing that news, there were multiple divorces in England. Very few had married because they wanted to after all.

Back in the states, James and Luna continued on as they always had. Daniel once asked why they hadn't started filing for divorce, and James seemed surprised by the odd question.

"If you two only married to keep the Ministry on your back, how come you haven't absolved it?"

"How long has it been since they were repealed?" asked James. He had forgotten the date.

"Four months."

"Huh... Frankly I didn't see any reason to bother. It's not like Luna and I don't get along, and we don't mind each others company."

In fact the two of them had been taking it slow but sure. Since Harry was one of the few people who had never called her Loony, Luna actually liked him. And Luna was one of the rare girls who didn't give a damn about his money or fame.

She had seen him for him.

That answer seemed to amuse Daniel.

"Sounds like me and Shar're. We were forced to marry, but I ended up falling for her anyway."

James looked up.

"Huh...hadn't thought of things like that. Well at least this way Mrs. Weasly won't try to get me to marry Ginny."

* * *

James went towards the parking lot when he sensed it. A presence he had hoped would leave him alone.

He slowly turned.

Behind him was Edward Cullen, and he looked hungry.

"FRICK!"

It had taken three seconds to get Jazz, and in that time he had managed to keep Cullen's attention solely on him.

Jazz had taken out Cullen easily, though James was in a foul mood for days.

* * *

Once they learned Edward's true objective, they had few options left to them.

While they couldn't exactly let a vampire roam the base...(there were health issues)...they couldn't let him go that easily either. And unfortunately they couldn't wipe his memory out.

Then James had an idea. One that amused him greatly.

"Why not have Jazz give him a concussion? Don't those generally cause memory loss?"

It was the best idea they had at the moment. So without preamble, they locked Jazz up with the sparklepire. And fifteen minutes later they walked in.

Edward was out for the count. His head was bleeding heavily, but he was still...alive in a sense. His head hadn't been torn off, so he would recover.

Before they shipped him off to Alaska, James gave the bastard a good, hard kick in the chones.

He ignored the laughter of the base personnel.

"Would someone mind telling me why that thing came here?"

James reluctantly raised his hand.

"Major Black?"

"He was following me. Annoying stalker bastard..."

"And why would something like him follow you?" asked Jack, knowing the answer would amuse him.

"A pair of twins I know pranked me about seven, eight months ago. I ended up in his territory and he took a shine to me...even when the prank finally wore off. He's been stalking me every since."

"Why would he take a shine to you Major Black?" asked Teal'c.

James blushed heavily. He muttered the answer, but no one caught it.

"What was that?" said Jack.

"Because the twins got me with a gender switching potion, alright?" said James, his face as red as a tomato.

Laughter exploded in the conference room.

"So you were a Jamie until it wore off?" asked Sam, grinning.

"Actually I was a Harriet Black. If you must see the wretched pictures, I still have them," growled James.

"Why would you...?" started Daniel.

"Because if I didn't keep them, the others would find them anyway," said James.

"Oh this I have to see!" said Jack.

Much to his horror, Jack somehow managed to get a photocopy of his female side, and spread it across the base.

To his relief, if Jack hadn't told them that it was James in the picture, no one would have believe it.

Well, almost no one.

(According to Jack, he made a convincing woman.)

Luna had smiled mysteriously, and moved past it. She didn't mind that her boyfriend (they had decided to take it slow, and pretend they weren't already married on paper) had been a girl at one point.

* * *

It really seemed that Luna and Harry were going to stay married...until Mrs. Weasly caught wind of the fact that neither of them had gone with a traditional marriage.

In her mind, it only meant that Harry was in a fake marriage. Which meant that Ginny still had a chance.

James packed for England. He and Luna were being called back for a few months to resolve a few issues with the Autobots stationed in Wolverhampton.

(Some of the bots who had come to Earth chose to help Hermione and the others instead of fighting any Decepticons...unless they were closer to the scene than Optimus' group.)

James had made up his mind about something as well. Since they had never properly gotten married, he decided to give Luna a proper wedding.

Though he was going to spring that up as a surprise.

It had taken him over half a year to realize that he had fallen for Luna. They were so used to the other that it was obvious they were falling in love. So James had decided that he was going to make it official.

Soon they were on the plane to England. The rest of SG-3 was on assignment on the Autobots base. It would give them a chance to learn more about the robots and learn a few new tricks.

Hermione was going to study the All-Spark energy through James. James didn't mind being a lab rat, so long as it was her doing the testing.

She took the marriage to Luna rather well, considering.

(Mrs. Weasly, not so much.)

* * *

James waited until they wheeled in the old MiG. He had started to develop a sense for when the All-Spark was going to act up.

When Hermione gave him the signal, he touched the plane (which they had restored completely and updated the weapon's systems) and waited.

The All-Spark shot out of his hand into the MiG. Though there was an unexpected side effect to using a Russian plane instead of a decommissioned British made one.

The former MiG only spoke Russian.

Hermione looked ecstatic. She had gotten the energy pattern copied on the computer. Because he had given life to something as big as a plane, the All-Spark was relatively dormant for the time being.

"So what are we going to do with you?" said James, looking at the new autobot.

Then he remembered the reports that the Russians somehow got their hands on another Stargate. Which meant they would be trying their hand in missions as well.

"Hermione, think the Russians would mind having some help in case everything goes to hell in a handbasket?"

"I doubt it."

James went to make a deal with the Russian Prime Minister. If he was right, then it would smooth over a problem before it began.

* * *

"You know I've been thinking... While the robots you bring to life are from the same spark as the Autobots and Decipticons, they are different from the ones that show up from space," said Hermione.

James had taken them all to lunch, with Shoto on his shoulder.

"I've noticed that too. While they follow Optimus' lead in battle, they tend to look to me more for advice than they do him. And they follow my requests."

"I have a theory about that. I don't think the ones you wake up are Autobots at all. I think they may be something else."

James took a sip of his beer. She might have a point.

"If they aren't autobots, what are they?" asked Luna.

"Well... This may sound silly mind you... I think we should call them Arcanights."

"Since Arcanots sounds too much like Argonauts?" asked James.

She nodded.

"Well I suppose a different name wouldn't exactly hurt them. But instead of Arcanights, how about Shadowbots?"

"Or Magibots," said Luna.

Hermione tried not to blush as she said a different name. James and Luna looked at her in amusement.

"What was that?"

"Medabots."

James laughed. Hermione was a bigger geek than he took her for. He blamed Anne's influence.

"Medabots or Magibots. Either way, I could care less," said James.

"So when is the wedding?"

"Next week. Mrs. Weasly insisted we hold it at the Burrow, and I agreed so she wouldn't hex me when my back is turned."

"She was so set on you marrying Ginny," said Hermione, shaking her head.

"Clearly she has never read Oedipus Rex. Besides, Ginny was always like a sister to me."

* * *

James was nervous, and rightfully so. He wondered if this was how his father felt when he married his mother.

Since James and Luna had already filled out the marriage license in Vegas, this was more a formality than anything.

Naturally it was going to be the event of the season. It wasn't every day the Savior was getting married.

Fred and George were next to him, grinning. Neville was his best man, since he was with him during the initial Autobot meeting. Most of the Weaslys were going to be on his side.

Sirius was going to give him away, and Remus was going to bring the rings up.

Suddenly the wedding march was played, and he took a deep breath before he got ready to go out. This was likely the last time he would have to wear the dress robes he owned.

He waited at the alter for Luna. When he saw her walking down that isle, his heart nearly stopped in shock. It was all he could do not to gape in disbelief.

It seemed the girls had worked a number on Luna.

Before she was rather pretty, if a bit eccentric with her clothing. Now she was drop dead gorgeous. Hermione, Ginny, Tonks, and a few girls he didn't know were on Luna's side.

James could barely remember the words spoken, and managed to get the ring on Luna's finger.

The only thing he could remember that day was kissing Luna and hearing the cheers of approval from the crowd.

He danced, got thumped on the back too many times to count, and was still grinning when the reception was over.

* * *

Since he never officially had a honeymoon with Luna, they were going to a remote beach for two months. After that they would head back to the SGC.

James rather liked the beaches of Hokkaido. With the cherry blossoms blooming, it was a rather relaxing scene. Beside him Luna sipped her drink with her usual smile.

They had been in Japan for over a month. In two weeks they would have to go back to work.

"I really needed this. No dark lords, no aliens and no stalker-boy," sighed James.

"And with your new wife to boot," added Luna.

"Could this day get any better?" asked James.

"We could find a wrackspurt," suggested Luna.

James was so used to her quirks by this point, he didn't bother disputing her suggestion. After about two more hours in the sun, the two explored.

Much to the shock of James, they _did_ in fact find a nest of wrackspurts. They sent the photos to Xeno to announce the truth. Luna was beaming at her husband the entire day.

* * *

"So how was the trip?" asked Jack.

"Great. The marriage is official...and we found out that Luna wasn't as crazy as everyone believed," said James cheerfully.

Seeing the look of disbelief, James showed Jack the nest of wrackspurts.

"And this is?"

"Wrackspurts. Which is what Xeno and Luna had been telling us all along, but we had no proof of their existence before," said James offhandedly.

Jack snorted.

"So when's out next mission?"

"Next week. You guys get to go hunt for an animal that can turn invisible for some reason."

"Jack, I can turn invisible with my cloak," James pointed out.

Jack snorted, and said "Even so we want to investigate it. Some of us can't use magic, remember?"

"Yeah yeah. To me, everyone is a wizard."

* * *

James and Luna prepared to use their spells to hunt down whatever the animal was.

They found it rather easily, but something scared it off. There were Gou'ald on the planet with them.

Which had James swearing worse than a sailor who had been banned from alcohol on shore leave.

"Why is it that whenever we leave Earth, and even when we are on it, I always attract the nutjobs like flies to crap?" he complained.

"Because Fate loves to mess with you dear. She insists on testing you," said Luna calmly.

After a few more minutes swearing (and amusing the nonmagical part of his team) they went in search of the poor parasites who were going to be hit with James' wrath.

Ten minutes later, James felt like swearing again. His allergies to the symbiotes had started to kick in, so the two magic users hit themselves with the bubble-head charm to negate the effects long enough to kill the jaffa.

"Of course. We couldn't get a random patrol of Jaffa, we had to get a damn System Lord. Why is my luck so horrid?" complained James to his team.

"Which one did we get this time sir?" asked Katelyn.

"Apophis from the looks of it. Jack and Daniel are going to be pissed if we don't at least try to bring him with us through the gate," said James.

Luna, however, was looking past them at something else.

"We're not alone," she said.

"What? What else is out there?"

"Humanoid people who are very surprised I can see past their little cloaking powers," she replied airily.

James felt like laughing, hysterically.

"Right, so show of hands. Make contact with the indigenous people and make friends, or go after the System Lord and possibly get our arses kicked or killed?"

The look his team gave him made him chuckle.

"Right, let's go meet the locals instead. If worst comes to worse, we can always run like hell."

* * *

James let Luna lead them to the people she had Seen. Whatever the locals used to cloak themselves, it was no match for the strongest Seer in a generation.

Finally, the people gave up trying to hide, once they were far enough away from the Gou'ald. While they were walking, James felt something brush up against his shields. It took him a minute to realize what was going on before he lowered them.

Since the people before them hadn't attacked his shields roughly, he was going to go with the assumption that they were peaceful by nature.

"You could see us," said the older one, clearly surprised.

"Luna can see a lot of things. She just likes to share them with others," shrugged James.

"Who are you?" asked one of the younger ones.

"Well, my name is James Potter-Black, and this lovely lady is my wife Luna. The other woman is Katelyn Brooks, and he's Micheal Derricks. We are a team of explorers."

"You come armed," noted the leader.

"We came looking for the flying creature that apparently turns itself invisible. Though I'm beginning to suspect you are behind that little trick," said James with good humor.

The man nodded.

"We protect the Fenri."

James chuckled.

"Almost sounds like Fenrir, the first son of Loki."

The man nodded, though he didn't get the joke.

"How can she see us when we are invisible?" asked the younger girl again.

James grinned. Somehow, he knew this was the perfect time to create some new allies.

"We have magic. At least Luna and I do. Kate and Mike are what we call mundanes."

Seeing their eyes widen, especially when James summoned his patronus, the man spoke again.

"It seems we have much more to discuss than I thought."

* * *

It turned out that the native people were called the Nox. And when they heard James's description of the Gou'ald, they frowned. Particularly when he elaborated on the three separate occasions that they System lords attempted to force a symbiote down his throat, only to find that his allergies made it impossible for them to use him.

It during the talks that James came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. While Jack and Daniel wanted Apophis (preferably with his head on a stick somewhere in a cannibalistic jungle, or turned into a shrunken head) they could live with James giving the bastard a rather impossible to cure case of Hemorrhoids and diarrhea.

Which, while not necessarily friendly, was also not as violent as what his friends would have done in his position. When he explained to the Nox why he was doing it, they had frowned. Then again, it was a rather harmless prank considering what James _could_ have done to someone who thought nothing of enslaving people.

Before they went through the gate themselves (with the approval of the Nox and the agreement to return later to negotiate a proper peace treaty) one of them paused and showed them what their real city looked like. Needless to say, they were all suitably impressed.

Of course James was more than happy to return and demonstrate the All Spark, so they could study the Magibot...and have a way to contact James at any time, to their amusement.

(One of the female Nox, Lya, had accidentally found out about that particular quirk. When asked, James fully admitted that he had known about it for a while.)

* * *

"So what happened while we were away?"

"Oh not much. Teal'c got captured and we nearly got our asses kicked by something called an Unas, then we had to deal with some Gou'alds, and Danny somehow ended up in an alternate universe. You know, the usual."

James snorted. SG-1 attracted the more troublesome missions about as often as James did with his team. In an odd way it gave him great comfort to find out that he wasn't the only one on Earth with majorly crappy luck.

"Did he bring anything back?"

"A gate address with Gou'alds at the other end. Apparently in the other universe, they had attacked Earth and killed everyone."

"Who's going to be sent to that address?"

Jack grinned at him. It wasn't a pleasant one.

"SG-1 and SG-3. In the words of Hammond 'Better to have the teams with the highest success rate working together rather than having only one team going in.'"

James snorted.

"Figures. When do we leave?"

"A week."

"Great..."

* * *

James was more than prepared to deal with the Gou'ald. He brought his wand, Dogstar, and several items he had picked up. One of the charms on his wrist was his beloved invisibility cloak.

He couldn't wait to see how the aliens would react to that!

(He never bothered with the Autobots, because they were all equipped with heat sensors.)

Once they were past the gate, James used a disillusionment charm to scout the area. If Teal'c couldn't see where he was, then there was a very good chance none of the other jaffa would either.

Luna was right by his side, her za'at gun ready to fire if needed. The rest of SG-3 was by the colonel.

"So explain to me again how you lot were caught so easily?" asked James.

"Your damn charm refused to take on us, remember?" said Jack, rubbing where he had been hit.

Bra'tac showed up roughly a few moments after SG-1 and the two muggles on SG-3 finally got over the effects of the Jaffa grenade.

Fortunately, James and Luna hadn't been present for that nasty little trick.

(Mainly because both were busy recasting the bubble-head charm repeatedly to avoid being detected. James' sneezing would have alerted the jaffa in seconds.)

Bra'tac lead them out of the cell, and actually jumped when James and Luna briefly reappeared.

James felt highly amused when Jack actually snickered.

"So you are Bra'tac. Teal'c has only said good things about you," said James.

"You must be James. Teal'c has mentioned your rather unusual ability to bring broken weapons to life," acknowledged Bra'tac.

James grinned.

"Apparently he didn't add the little misunderstanding about the staff weapon, or the joke my superior played to resolve it," answered James.

Bra'tac lead them past the guards. Fortunately, James' cloak allowed for a few charms to be cast on it. It was easier to sneak around with SG-1 and SG-3 under the cloak.

When Klorel rose from the sarcophagus, James looked at the ship in speculation.

"You know I wonder...do you think the Spark could awaken this big thing?"

"Don't even think about it love," said Luna firmly.

James looked at the team with an evil grin.

"Give me five minutes and I will have these guys chasing their tails."

Bra'tac looked at him with amusement.

"May I watch?"

"Watch? Hell, you can join in!"

Bra'tac lead them to the hanger bay while the two of them went to work.

The large ship quickly descended into chaos as James and Bra'tac let loose a large amount of Weasly pranks onto the jaffa.

James was quick to note that the portable swamp seemed more effective in close quarters than he originally suspected.

James leveled his wand and sent a patronus to Luna.

"_Luna, could you tell the teams to throw some grenades into the shafts for us? It'll be a bit tricky to get back with all the mass chaos we just let loose and I don't think we can do it while Apparating."_

Luna gave the teams an evil smile.

"James wants us to let loose a big boom. He said to attack the star drive with our explosives."

Jack grinned in a manner reminiscent of James' own.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's blow this puppy up!"

SG-1 and SG-3 had a lot of fun lobbing grenades down the shafts they had passed. The explosions were particularly satisfying.

Bra'tac and James were waiting for them near the minor gliders. They quickly divided up between themselves, and launched before the ships crashed into each other.

"Everyone alright?" asked James.

"All clear," said Jack.

"Anyone else feel like we just destroyed the _Death Star_?" asked James.

Jack, Daniel and SG-3 all laughed.

"Too bad Vader wasn't sent spinning out of control!" snorted Jack.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You somehow gated onto a ship, got caught, managed to escape and cause untold amounts of chaos, and _you didn't think to call me for a month?"_ shrieked Hermione.

"We were too busy with our _Star Wars_ puns. Of course then Jack had to drag Teal'c to the local theatre for a proper movie marathon so he would get the joke."

Luna got on another phone and asked "How did you like the gliders we sent your way?"

"Well thanks to those we have been able to begin work on our own versions, though it's slow going. Some of the new autobots have been a great help, since the Magibots haven't been around as long as they have," said Hermione.

James snickered.

"So we're going with Magibots?"

"I posted a poll on the office clipboard, and everyone decided it was somewhat more appropriate than the others people came up with."

James could just see the annoyed look on Hermione's face when he burst out laughing.

* * *

James and Luna quickly worked out a system when they realized Luna had become pregnant. There wasn't a chance they would take any child of theirs onto the base with all the danger it was in on a monthly basis.

(That had brought up a few complaints, but everyone knew it was quite true no matter how much SG-1 and SG-3 disputed it wasn't their fault to begin with.)

James was steadfast on finding a good babysitter, at least until they worked out a decent schedule. At no time did he once consider the Dursleys.

Then everything really got thrown for a loop the day they went to see an exhibit on Prehistoric life. It was going to be full of robotic dinosaurs...which upon thinking back on it, James should have realized it was a recipe for disaster.

Too bad he didn't realize what a bad idea it was for someone carrying the All Spark in his magical core before they went.

James watched with childlike joy as the dinosaurs did as they were programed while Luna enjoyed the looks people shot her.

It wasn't until the lights abruptly went out that things went to hell rather quickly.

Some of the more fanatical Death Eaters who had escaped Azkaban and the wrath of the survivors were there to kill them. Alas, their timing couldn't have been worse.

In the midst of the confusion, James had been thrown against the T-Rex...and when the All Spark sensed it's carrier was in danger it reacted.

Rather violently too.

A wave of blueish green energy swept out from James, touching five of the robots and bringing them to life for real.

Fortunately they were so young that they couldn't transform into their new forms just yet.

The T-Rex roared for real, causing even more panic. It didn't take long for the museum to clear out, with only James, Luna and the new bots remaining.

The Death Eaters had been trampled by the crowd, and were too injured to actually _do _anything.

"Why does this always happen to me?" whined James.

"I don't know love, but at least it's never boring," said Luna cheerfully.

James felt like banging his head against something, repeatedly.

He looked at the five new bots, and realized with horror what he had actually done.

He had inadvertently created the Dinobots.

Grimlock, the T-Rex. Slug, the Triceratops. Sludge, the Apatosaurus (aka Brontosaurus). Snarl, the Stegosaurus. And Swoop, the Pterodactyl.

James really felt like crying.

"Anne is never going to let me live this down! First Cullen and now the Dinobots?"

* * *

As he predicted, when Anne learned exactly what James had created, she fell to the floor laughing her ass off. It took her five whole minutes to get over it.

"I can't leave you alone for two months!" she said, when she could finally talk again.

"Is it _my_ fault those idiots had to show up while we were admiring a dinosaur exhibit?" complained James.

"You do realize what this means, don't you?" she said grinning?

"I need a vacation far from anything electronic?" he said hopefully.

"Nope. We need you to start doing the paperwork for any new Magibots," she replied, and James started to cry.

"NOOOOO! NOT PAPERWORK!"

Luna patted her husband's back reassuringly. Paperwork was the devil, but at least he had her.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You took your wife to see the new dino exhibit at the museum, got attacked...and brought back five dino robots?" asked Hammond, shaking his head.

James looked ready to kill something.

"Can I ask for a year without getting attacked by something?" he whined.

"Face it Jamesie, trouble is your conjoined twin," said Anne bluntly.

"So when's SG-1 returning? I want to fleece Jack a few off duty boys of their well earned cash," said James, rubbing his hands.

"Poker, again?"

James snickered. He was the reigning poker champ on base, with Luna being his queen. Her spaced out look fooled everyone but James.

Suddenly the alarms went off, and James growled.

"And there goes our luck."

They raced up the stairs to find Walter looking at the IDC in surprise.

"It's SG-1."

"Oh good, once this is over I can beat Jack at Poker again," said James, cheerfully.

Only to find out that the planet which they had gone to was about to be destroyed, and that they were bringing back over ten refugees.

Apparently a volcano near the Stargate had gone off before they could escape.

It took a while for the people they had saved to wake up, and they weren't as thankful as most would have been.

James listened to Omoc incredulously.

"Before we start slinging punches, have your people ever come into contact with the Nox?"

Hearing that name startled Omoc so much that he shut up and actually looked at James.

"So you do know them. Good. Perhaps you should learn to be a little less rude and listen for a change."

"How do you know of the Nox?" asked Omoc.

"We ran into them during a mission, and they took a real shine to me and my wife. Probably because Luna could see them under their little cloaking trick. We were planning on negotiating a treaty later."

It turned out to be the icebreaker needed to get the Tollan to actually _talk_ to them. Learning that the Nox approved of them was definitely the right thing to say.

Even if Jack and Daniel weren't too happy with how James had dealt with Apophis.

* * *

"Who's this asshole?" asked James.

Jack looked to where he was looking, and snorted.

"That's right, you were on your honeymoon when he was around. Colonel Maybourne is a total idiot, and thinks he has every right to force people to do what he wants."

James gave the man the once over and said innocently "So would anyone complain if I gave him a nasty case of gout or boils?"

"Not in the least!" replied Jack with a grin that spoke of trouble.

"Great! I'll serve the drinks then."


	8. Chapter 8

It seemed that with James' intervention, the Tollan agreed to at least share a little of their knowledge. Particularly when James told Colonel Maybourne that if he continued to try and force the Tollan to live on Earth and steal their knowledge, he would take them and everyone else who knew of the Stargate back with him to England.

And the Colonel wasn't stupid enough to start an international (and intergalatic) incident with a rather powerful Duke who had the Queen of England (and several other countries) backing him.

It seems Maybourne wasn't too happy to learn that the Tollan had the same basic human rights as any English citizen.

Officially the paperwork was more of a formality than anything, but once James explained what he was doing and why (without leaving a single thing out) Omoc agreed.

Particularly when it also allowed them to at least meet the Autobots and the Magibots (which the Autobots accepted as the new name for any electronic device James awoke either by accident or on purpose) without causing a fuss.

Hermione was downright ecstatic to meet the Tollans, who were highly amused by her fanatical nature for knowledge. Between Sam and Hermione, it was likely that they would find the place comfortable.

When Maybourne tried another tactic to force the Tollan to remain on Earth, James did the one thing he could that couldn't be traced back to the SGC.

He contacted the Nox through the Magibot that he had given them.

No one other than Luna and Anne even knew about that particular ability.

Lya was more than happy to retrieve the misplaced Tollans.

James of course gave them another Magibot, this one so they could contact Hermione at any time and share information. Of course James hadn't missed the fact that Hermione and Narim apparently had become attracted to each other.

Frankly James wished the girl luck, as Narim was by far a better match for her than Ron ever could be. Narim would encourage his friend to her absolute best, and she didn't have to dumb down whenever she went into bookworm mode.

* * *

Maybourne was not a happy camper when he realized the Tollan were far, far from his reach. It took a moment before James realized why the man pissed him off so much.

"Dear lord, I've found the American equivalent of that hag Umbitch..."

James had a run in with the woman when he was helping Remus and the other werewolves draft some changes in the werewolf laws. Since everyone was more than happy to listen to him for defeating Voldemort, and the Queen herself had picked him personally to remake the laws, their was very little the pure-bloods could do about it.

That didn't stop Dolores Umbridge from making a nuisance of herself. Further investigation revealed she was behind a good portion of the more recent laws against werewolves.

She was currently spending several years in Azkaban for nearly starting a war with the centaurs and werewolves, which she had called half breeds.

It turned out she wasn't liked at all, even by the pure-bloods. She was as close to a Death Eater as one could get without actually taking up the Mark and killing muggleborns.

* * *

"Ow...what the bloody hell did we hit?" complained James.

Luna, Sam and Jack had gone through along with him, and apparently something went wrong. Everywhere they looked was ice and rock.

Oh, and the Stargate of course.

"Where are we?" asked Sam.

James didn't know, but he was in a foul mood. He hated the cold.

"Where are the others?" asked Luna.

Daniel, Teal'c, Kate and Mike were gone. Though they had gone in a few seconds before that staff blast had hit them.

"Hold on a second while I bring out Dogstar. Perhaps he can tell us."

"How the hell can that wolf tell us where we are?" asked Jack.

"He has GPS."

"Which helps us how?" asked an irritated Sam.

"Did I mention that this GPS has an interplanetary option? He can find out where we are anywhere in the known galaxy."

Sam and Jack stared at him.

"How?"

James shrugged.

"According to Optimus, their planet Cybertron is roughly one galaxy over. It's about a few million miles short of being in the Pegasus galaxy or something."

"And this helps us..."

"Cybertron apparently had dealings with Earth in the ancient past, and when they realized there were a system of gates that connected multiple planets they had their scientists catalog them?"

"Why didn't he mention this before?" asked Sam.

"Optimus doesn't know about the catalog. Only someone with access to the All Spark, which recorded the entire history of their race, has access to those files."

Now it made sense. James was a living conduit for what was left of the All Spark. It was only because of his magic that he could even contain almost all of the power it had.

Even though he had trouble accessing the history parts of it.

Dogstar sat down, and scanned his databanks. A little thing like ice wasn't going to hinder him that much, though it made his systems slow down considerably.

"_Scan complete... Location, Earth. Antarctica to be exact. Can I go back onto the bracelet now? This temp is murder on my circuits."_

James put the wolf back onto the bracelet, and made a note to double check it when they were someplace warmer.

"So we made it back...the only problem is that we're on the wrong damn continent. Now what?"

It was Luna who spoke up.

"Can't you contact one of the Magibots and tell them where we are?"

James paused.

"The only one I could possibly contact is the one I left with Hermione. All the others went to our...allies. Let's see if I can get a signal out to her."

James sat in a meditative pose, and searched for Hermione's Magibot Schrodinger. When he heard the name he had to fight to keep from laughing at the joke.

(If you don't get the joke, look up Schrodinger's cat. It's the best I can do for you sad, sad people.)

_Schrodinger...SCHRODINGER!_

**Ow! No need to yell dude!**

_Schrodinger, can you get Hermione's attention?"_

**I can try. No guarantees though.**

_If nothing else works tell her my conjoined twin has decided to really act up._

**...How bad we talking about? Gou'ald bad or Cullen bad?**

_Try as bad as the time I accidentally brought the Dinobots to life._

He could feel the bot wince. Bringing the Dinobots to life was one of his more...memorable accidents when it came to the All Spark. If it wasn't for the fact that James could actually _buy_ a small island for them to live on, it would have become even more of a mess than even he could fix.

It didn't take long for Hermione to talk through Schrodinger.

Shoto, the only bot to remain in alt form in James' arms, woke up and started acting as a webcam, complete with audio.

"Harry James Potter, what the bloody hell have you gotten yourself into this time?" she demanded.

"Hello Hermione. Nice to see you again too."

"James..." she growled in warning.

Clearly he had interrupted an important experiment, if she was that pissed.

"One of the staff blasts knocked us to another gate. On _Earth_. Under what appears to be several feet of ice."

All annoyance and anger disappeared in an instant.

"Where are you?"

"Dogstar told us we're in Antarctica. He couldn't do any better with the cold messing up his circuits."

"Can the smaller Magibots locate you?"

"Hermione, I can talk to any of the bots I woke up. Chances are they can find me, even if it's within a general area. Can you let the SGC know what happened?"

"Can you keep from causing trouble until we get there?"

"Hermione~!" whined James.

She cracked an evil grin. And then logged off to make several calls.

* * *

"Right, while they organize a search and rescue party how will we help them find us?"

Sam thought about that for a bit, but she was stumped. They had a DHD and a Stargate, but even magic couldn't break several feet of ice, no matter how powerful James was. And Dogstar made it clear that the Magibots and Autobots would have trouble with the cold.

It was Luna who spoke up.

"Once they get here, we activate the Stargate. Before you guys came to the program, the thing had a history of being rather unstable."

They all looked at her.

"I was around right around the time the program was reactivated for good. I asked around and found that the Stargate tends to wobble a lot before they put dampeners on it when a wormhole was active."

"Come to think of it, there were reports of seismic activity every time the gate was active until they relocated it to the mountain," admitted Sam.

"So when they get here, we activate the gate and have it dialed to Earth. They'll get a good guess where we are from the vibrations," said Jack.

"Good a plan as any. Under this ice, even heat seekers would have trouble finding us."

Two days later, James sensed Schrodinger nearby.

"Dial the gate. They're here."

Sam dialed the SGC, and they could all feel the shaking even with the Stargate nearly buried in the ice.

About an hour later, they heard someone digging nearby. Soon daylight hit them all in the face, making them wince.

"JAMES POTTER!" shrieked Hermione. When James looked, he found out why she was so annoyed.

Apparently she had fallen face first in the snow.

"Hello Mione."

Hermione was still glaring at him, even though she now had a DHD to play with.

It turned out that with the new DHD in their possession, Hermione got the Nox and Tollan to open up more in concerns to the Stargate.

Although when it came to science they were rather young, it rarely made a problem with Hermione and Sam. They usually could keep up rather well with the other species. It was very rare for Hermione to become confused, and often took very little explanation before she could comprehend.

The Magibots made it very easy for them to advance as a species. Particularly since the most they were doing was acting as communication devices, only with their own personality traits.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. Even with the backing of the Queen, the President and several very advanced Alien cultures backing us up, they want to shut us down?" asked James, incredulous.

"At six billion dollars, even with the aid from the British Empire, they felt it was possibly too much a risk," said Jack.

"They do realize that even if they shut it down here, I would immediately reactivate it in Britain where Hermione is, right?" said James.

"If nothing else I'll quit the military and join you lot in Britain. How's Wolverhampton by the way?"

"Aside from the usual British weather, it's actually pretty nice. Plus you guys could always bunk with me at the castle."

"You own a castle."

"Five of them actually. One of them is currently a museum," said James without missing a beat.

"Sometimes I really hate you kid."

"Because even with all that money I still enjoy fleecing you at poker?"

"Exactly."

"So who's coming?"

"The same morons who tried to interfere last time. Kinsley and Maybourne."

"And the judge?"

"Dr. Weir. Apparently she's pretty good at treaties and such."

* * *

As Kinsley read the reports and they tried to condemn SG-1 for barely escaping most missions alive, James sat back. If nothing else he would make sure that the Stargate stayed active.

They had stepped into a larger world, and he was damned if he was going to allow some morons with the same views he despised keep them from stepping forward.

Sure, sometimes progress was a bad thing, but on a whole it actually helped.

Because of the peace treaty with the Nox, Tollan, the rather tentative one with the Tok'ra, and the Autobots, they had actually improved communications around the world, made computers faster and stronger, as well as improved guidance systems.

Word had it that they were starting to improve space travel as well. But it would be a long time coming before they could match the Gou'ald, if ever even with the help from their alien allies.

James glared at Kinsley for comparing the Stargate to Pandora's box.

"Look, even if you _did_ manage to shut it down here, you can't keep the Stargate closed forever."

"And what exactly does that mean Colonel Black?"

James knew he had been promoted again. They had sent him an e-mail.

"I mean the Queen is quite prepared to sponsor their own Stargate program, and with the help of the Tollan and the Autobots, it is likely to be kept open indefinitely."

Samuels scoffed at him.

"I find it hard to believe that a mere soldier like yourself could keep the Stargate program open, even with the Queen's approval."

"You really don't know anything about me, do you Colonel Samuels? My full name is Duke Harry James Potter-Black, Knight of the Realm and owner of Dragonfire Incorporated. The _same_ Dragonfire company that has the patents to the technology recently made available to us by our allies. I could keep it going for as long as I want, since your government is quite happy to buy the improve systems from a British company."

"_You're _the owner of Dragonfire?" said Sam in shock.

"I knew my dad was well off, and could care less," shrugged James.

While James sat back and listened to the arguing, he decided to let the others speak for him. It wasn't until they got to the incident with the Tollan that he actually said something.

"Maybourne, if you don't quit lying your ass off I will hex you," he said calmly.

"I know you're the one behind that little problem I had after the meeting with the Tollan!" said Maybourne.

"If you are referring to the potion I slipped that gave you diarrhea, then yes I was behind that. You completely deserved that for trying to force the Tollan to share their knowledge with us when I had successfully gotten them to at least share safe amounts of what they knew by befriending the Nox," glared James.

Dr. Weir looked surprised, and gave him a look. He elaborated.

"Colonel Maybourne attempted to place the Tollan into what would have been a concentration camp, only with no chance of escape. When their leader learned that I had successfully befriended the Nox earlier, he allowed the others to open up and share what they felt was a safe amount of their knowledge with us."

"When you say safe...?"

"Dr. Weir, according to the Tollan, they had encountered a world much like our own, if a bit more advanced. They shared some of their technology and the world was destroyed, knocking their world off it's axis leading to their destruction. They had since made a law that forbid them from sharing too much of their knowledge with those they deem 'young'."

Dr. Weir nodded.

"You should also know that had Colonel Maybourne succeeded in forcing the Tollan to stay, we would have made an enemy of the Nox, who have so far been one of our more pleasant allies. They had made it known through the Magibots that they are willing to send medicine which can cure some diseases, like certain forms of cancer."

Finally Dr. Weir made her decision.

"It is my opinion that the SGC continue on as it has. Clearly the men and women of this base have done their best to improve our standing in the universe, despite the consequences. Though the potential for disaster is indeed high, the benefits in this instance far outweigh the risks in my opinion."

Senator Kinsley looked outraged. He had been against the SGC for a long time.

The fact that one of the members happened to be one of the most wealthy people in the world had only soured his mood. Particularly when that same member made it very clear he would continue the program, this time far away from any American interference.

* * *

James waited with a nervous pace as Luna went into the delivery room. She knew he was right outside the door should she need him. Hermione, Ginny and Mrs. Weasly were all inside, helping the girl through the process.

Ginny had long since gotten married to Neville, to his shock. They were currently expecting their first child in a few months.

After eight hours of waiting, James felt his wife calling. He held her hand as she brought their child into the world.

Only to find to their shock that she had actually been carrying twins the whole time. A boy and a girl.

Luna was worn out, and didn't argue with naming their children Lily and James. But she did to pass on her mother's name.

Sirius and the others were in quite a mood as James looked at his two children.

"Congratulations Prongslet!"

"Am I ever going to get rid of the Prongslet name?"

Sirius looked at his godson with amusement, and realized he had a point. James wasn't a child anymore.

"Alright then, Prongs the second?"

"That'll work. Anyway this little guy is going to be the new Prongslet."

Sirius jumped up in glee as he declared "I am so crashing your pad, even if it's only to leave a bucket of color changing potion on the door!"

James laughed.

"Deal."

* * *

With the arrival of the new Potter heirs, things started to get really hectic. James actually found himself shipped back to England with Luna, so he could help negotiate better deals with the alien allies.

He had become the official Ambassador for Earth, with the blessings of everyone who knew about it.

James decided to follow through with his threat and created a British SGC, with the agreement that any technology they found would be shared freely with the Americans. In exchange for founding the second SGC, James ended up being promoted again so he could lead it without anyone complaining.

The Earth was at a relative peace. Aside from the random missions where the Earth was nearly destroyed (which happened at multiple times, no matter how hard James and Hammond wished they didn't) and learning that the Asgard were in fact the same little gray aliens that littered the tales on the internet, and the Autobots generally blowing up their enemies with the help of the Magibots...not much was happening.

At least, for six whole months anyway.

* * *

James occasionally went on missions to deal with the Decepticon threat, just to get out of his paper ridden office. This time he was in China, and the cover was a toxic spill.

Luna was right by his side, with the twins being watched by...well the Weasly Twins.

Hermione still couldn't believe that James and Luna would dare trust their one and a half year old twins to those two. Especially for hours at a time.

Right now they were dealing with a rather large Decepticon. When James saw the damage it was causing, he registered an odd complaint over the comms.

"_Why the hell couldn't this thing have been in Japan?"_

"General Black, what are you talking about?" asked Lennox.

"_If we were in Japan I could have set Grimlock on the bastard and we could have claimed Godzilla did all the damage. Easier to cover it up that way," _ answered James.

The moment everyone in NEST registered that comment, they all burst out laughing. James had a very good point. If they had been in Japan they could have covered it up as a Godzilla movie or something. Grimlock did resemble Mecha Godzilla.

James was right behind Optimus when he heard the robot deliver it's warning.

"_**This is not your planet to rule. The Fallen shall rise again!"**_

Which set James off swearing.

"Damn these robot bastards! I _hate_ self fulfilling prophecies!"

* * *

When he returned to the SGC, he was scowling. Even hearing Fred describe in great detail about the accidental magic that James used on him didn't cheer him up.

Then he read the report Jack faxed him...from Sam Witwickey's neighborhood.

"Oh hell no. Please tell me this isn't what I think it is..."

Luna walked in with a large cup of coffee. Spiked with enough migraine relievers that James' scowl was starting to go away.

"What is it love?"

"It seems that Sam had a sliver of the Cube in his shirt. That's the only excuse I can think of for why Bumblebee just shot his kitchen and his room to bits."

Luna winced.

"Does this mean what I think it means love?"

"It means that we're about to be pulled into another near war with the Decepticons. I knew that those minor battles were only a prelude to something like this. Megatron is too much like Voldemort to stay dead."

"I think that Mrs. Weasly would adore having the children over again. You know she loves the twins."

"She loves trying to undo the corruption the Terror Twins have inflicted on their minds," said James flatly.

Luna grinned, but didn't deny it.

"Right, time to get Hermione and the others ready for another major battle."

James was on the naval base within hours. Beside him was Luna and his team. The Autobots had just returned, and were about to give their debrief.

* * *

Lennox saw him there, and hid a scowl. If James was back, it meant he sensed trouble was on the horizon.

On the plus side, it also meant that their best ally against the bureaucrats in Washington was around to keep them from making a really bad mistake.

James cracked a smile when he saw the Autobot twins goofing off. They were like the Terror Twins, only they caused larger damage bills.

James walked up to Optimus, and waved. He soon joined Lennox on the viewing platform where the other General was awaiting the report.

When he saw Director Gallaway, he scowled.

Were there no end to the idiots who thought they could use their precious few alien allies? He looked like another Maybourne.

"Secure link to JCS is up Major!"

"_Secure line to the Pentagon is now open."_

"General?"

"_Will, I saw the Shanghai op. We had a rough day out there."_

"Yes sir. We have intel that I believe warrants an immediate debrief. Now with your permission, I can't let you see him, but I would like you to hear from the leader of the Autobots."

The General noted James was on the side, and had to ask "Why is General Black there with you?"

"I was with them at Shanghai, and frankly something that bot said bothered me. If something is going down, you're going to need all the help you can get," said James flatly.

"Proceed."

It was well known that James Black was never suited to a desk job, which was why he was even _allowed_ on the battlefield with the others.

Plus it helped him to keep up to date on his soldiers, some of which resented the fact that he was already a General at such a young age.

"You gotta wonder, if God made us in his image, who made him?"

James hid a chuckle. It was a good question.

"General, our alliance has countermanded six Decepticon incursions this year, each on a different continent. They're clearly searching around the world for something, but last night's encounter came with a warning."

"_**The Fallen shall rise again."**_

"'The Fallen.' Meaning what?"

"Origin unknown. The only recorded history of our race was contained in the All Spark and lost with it's destruction."

"That is not entirely true. Some of the history was saved, but is currently inaccessible at this point," James spoke up.

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"When I accidentally absorbed the Cube's energy, a good portion of the memories it contained was absorbed as well. I have been trying to transfer it to a Magibot, but I've been having limited success."

"Have you encountered any records of the Fallen?" asked Lennox.

James closed his eyes, as if scanning something. Thanks to the unique nature of his Occulmency barriers, he could look up anything he needed.

"Right...from what I can see thanks to the Occulmency training I've had, the Fallen is the first Decepticon. There is no record of his death, only that he went missing some time after the other first Primes vanished somewhere on Earth. That's all I can access at the moment."

"Excuse me! With this so called All Spark now destroyed, why hasn't the enemy left the planet like you thought they would?"

James gave him an incredulous look.

"I don't know, maybe to take revenge for killing Megatron? Maybe because they realize that we now pose a real threat to them, even if it's in the future? Maybe because there is something here on Earth they still need or want? Take your pick."

Gallaway glared at him. If James wasn't from the British Royal Air Force, he wouldn't doubt for a second that his military career would have ended for that remark.

"For that matter, how high is your clearance anyway? I didn't receive any note that the President added a new name to the list," said James.

"He's Director Gallaway, our National Security Advisor. The President just appointed him liason," said Lennox.

"I didn't see any memo about that. And I would have been notified of such a thing in advance," said James, glaring at the man.

Gallaway huffed and puffed exactly like Fudge would, angry that James desputed his new clearance. Even when James read the paper, he still wanted it verified.

"Right. Someone escort Director Gallaway until this has been verified," said James.

Lennox was more than happy to do so.

Gallaway made a fuss anyway, and wasn't too happy to learn that he would be notified after the fact of the rest of the meeting.

"General Black, why did you have Director Gallaway escorted out before the debriefing was over?"

"We have no idea if the line is completely secure against Decepticon interference. At our level of technology, they could still very easily hack in. And that man clearly has a problem with keeping his mouth shut about matters best discussed under privacy wards and sworn to secrecy with wands. The last thing we need is for some vital information to get back to the enemy."

Optimus nodded in approval. James was absolutely correct when he said that it would be easy for the Decepticons to hack human satellites.

* * *

Once they finished the meeting Gallaway went to have a talk with Optimus Prime...with James, Lennox and the General there to keep the peace. He recognized the type of man Gallaway was.

He was probably one of Senator Kinsley's supporters to boot.

Gallaway was not happy to see James at all. Or the webcam with the General on it.

"I can assume that my clearance has been verified?"

"Decepticon technology is still above ours. I am not going to let them get their hands on intel that could give us more trouble than it's worth," said James flatly.

Gallaway actually glared at Optimus at that.

"So why did the President give someone like...you...clearance?" asked James.

"After the mess in Shanghai, the President is hard pressed to say that the job's getting done."

"Like we could have known the damn thing was going to be that big, or that there was going to be a second one waiting for us?" said Lennox annoyed.

"Now, under the classified Alien/Autobot Cooperation Act, you agreed to share your intel with us, but not your technological advancements in weaponry."

"Let me stop you right there Mr. Gallaway. I have personally come into contact with three other advanced alien species, and they agree with the Autobots completely that we are not ready to handle their advancements in weaponry. The mere fact that the Autobots are willing to treat us as equals is a miracle, considering they are still having trouble believing how behind we are," said James.

"What other alien species?" asked Gallaway.

James looked at him, hard. It was obvious that he was only cleared to talk to the Autobots directly right now.

"That is apparently above even your classified status. I am the official Alien Liason for Earth."

"What other alien species?"

"There are three alien species that we are allied with at the moment, but since I can't guarantee the security of this conversation, I am not going to name them. Four if you count the Autobots."

Clearly Gallaway was in over his head if he didn't know about the Stargate program.

Optimus added his comments on the matter.

"We've witnessed _your_ human capacity for war. It would absolutely bring more harm than good."

"But who are you to judge what's best for us?"

"Director, are you by any chance a supported for Senator Kinsley?"

"How do you know the good Senator?"

James sat up.

"Right, I've heard enough. If you're in league with Kinsley, then trying to talk sense is pointless. And since you clearly aren't high enough to know about the program, you have two choices. Either leave or deal with me. Frankly I hope you stick around, because I have plenty of hexes that I am willing to use and not lose any sleep over it."

Gallaway knew about magic apparently, because he paled and backed off.

"General, if you guys need anything, I'll be back at my desk. The first hint I get of trouble, I'll be a port key away."

"Good luck with the paperwork demons, General Black."

James winced, and left.

* * *

After the report about Sam, James sent one of his operatives to his new college to keep an eye on things. He had already infiltrated the roommate by acting as a tech geek.

James had to love paranoid techies. They were so easy to infiltrate, provided you were good enough with computers.

While he found the boy annoying, the fact was that he had been the first one to help him out of that crater the Cube's energy absorption had left. Chances were high that some of the All Spark had fallen into his shirt or some form of energy still lingered on him.

Besides, Sam was still being protected by Bumblebee, so he deserved the benefit of the doubt.

It turned out that his roommate was fascinated by the Autobots, and had gotten his hands on some of the surveillance footage in Shanghai. Only to have it jacked by someone called _RoboWarrior._

His agent was highly amused when he heard a familiar term far from home. And it came from the most unlikely person imaginable.

Sam's mother.

"_It's just like Hogwarts."_

(_They double and triple checked, and confirmed the woman was in fact a mundane. They later found out that someone by the name of J.K. Rowling had apparently created a series called _**_Harry Potter_**_, to James' horror. And that will end the breaking of the fourth wall. :)_)

James couldn't help the laugh when Hermione found out that Robo Warrior was in fact the paranoid conspiracy theorist from the disbanded Sector Seven, Agent Simmons.

For the next week, the agent kept an eye on Sam Witwicky. And James was quickly alerted to a major problem.

Sam had clearly absorbed the memory banks of the All Spark, but unlike James, he didn't have any magic to help filter the large amount of information. He had a panic attack at a Frat party.

* * *

"What's this about a breach in Diego Garcia?" asked James, reading the new fax.

"We think a Decepticon breached the base and stole the shard. It went missing soon after," said Lennox.

"Crap. I'm heading to America. It can't be a coincidence that they decided to act now so soon after that Witwicky kid had a panic attack at an ordinary frat party."

"How would you know about that?"

"Colonel O'Neil sent me a fax a few weeks ago after the Shanghai op, saying that the kid's house got hit by Bumblebee. I think he absorbed some of the All Spark's memory banks."

"Great...more good news."

"At least we have a heads up this time."

"Any chance we can get the data from him?"

"I've been in contact with Narim, and he said his people might have a device that can download the All Spark memory from Sam without harming him. We were originally going to use me, but I don't know if Sam can handle the knowledge."

"Right. Keep us posted."

"Will do Major Lennox."


	9. Chapter 9

James took a long drink from his butterbeer, and tried to figure out what to do next. It wasn't until he happened to watch the movie that Luna had picked up that he had an idea.

Gallaway had been getting on his nerves because as the Official Ambassador for Earth, he had yet to actually produce any scientific achievements aside from improving existing devices.

James felt that if humanity was going to advance, it would do so at it's own pace and not achieve things too fast. Doing so could quickly lead to a horrible disaster. The incident with the Tollans was at the forefront of his mind whenever Gallaway complained about the technology on the Earth being behind.

So as he watched the space station blow up in the movie, and idea occurred to him. One he felt the Autobots and the allies would agree to.

Why not create a space station around Earth? It would double as an early detection for alien interference, and it would get the idiots off his back.

It wasn't like a space station was that advanced. And it was a relatively safe piece of tech that the allies would probably agree to.

James got into his civilian clothes, and got ready to infiltrate the school. If he had his calculations done right, then Sam would have another episode when he came into contact with new information. Knowing his luck, it would be in Astrology class of all things.

* * *

Lennox looked at James in disbelief.

"So let me get this straight. Your plan to get this moron off our ass is to create a _space station_ around the Earth?"

"Think about it! The current space stations surrounding Earth are spotty at best. And the people there have to do constant maintenance that almost always breaks down within months. Why not create a permanent space station built to monitor the Earth and alert us to trouble from our Intergalactic problems a few hours before they hit us?"

"What's next, the moon?"

"There has only been one actual moon landing that we are aware of. Who's to say that with the Autobots help we wouldn't find out more about our natural satellite?"

"Why don't we think about it after the Decepticons are taken care of for another few years?"

"Just think Lennox, if we pull this kind of project off, who's to say we won't actually _find_ Cybertron and help the Autobots rebuild it?"

"Okay, now I see your selling point to the bots. I just hope they agree to it."

"I'm fairly sure the Tollans and the Nox won't have any problems with a peaceful space station. All we're really doing is making it much harder for the Gou'ald and the Decepticons to sneak into our skys. And you know NASA will be eating their own hearts out for a chance to create a permanent space station."

Lennox laughed at that, and completely agreed with his assessment.

* * *

James sat in with Sam, noting that the boy didn't even recognize him. He watched as the boy had a complete melt down from the information that was running around his own mind.

After he cast the disillusionment spell, he followed Sam to his room. The boy was painting Cybertronian symbols all over his walls.

"Sam!"

"What...who's there?" he asked, panicked.

"Sorry...forgot to take the charm off. Looks to me like you're having a rough day," grinned James.

"I keep seeing symbols in my head!"

James winced.

"Right. Time to take you to Optimus. He can keep you safe while I get our allies to remove your problem."

"Remove my... Look, I already told Optimus that I didn't want to be dragged back in!"

James whocked Sam on the head, hard.

"You bloody moron! Do you have any idea what is happening to you? You absorbed some of the All Spark's memory banks, and it's slowly destroying your mind!"

"What?"

"Look, I have made friends who can remove the memory banks you accidentally took in, but we need to move. I've been sensing a Decepticon close by since I got here," said James.

"Who are you anyway?" asked Sam, trying to rush out of the dorm.

"For the love of. I was there when Megatron first woke up? I flew that plane that later became an Autobot? James Black, ring any bells?"

"James Black...as in the guy who owns all those patents? I heard about you on the news."

"General James Black, head of Alien/Human relations and the Official Ambassador for Earth."

"How old are you?"

James grinned at him, and said "I'm barely 20, if you must know. If you think I'm odd, wait until you meet my wife."

Sam stared at him, but continued to follow James. He was the only person who seemed to have any idea what was going on.

"Mikaela!"

"Hello Mikaela. Why do I sense Energon coming off you?"

"What?"

James looked at Sam with some amusement.

"She had a faint energon reading on her. Did you come into contact with anything other than Bumblebee lately?"

"Who are you?"

"First Sam now you? Why is it that neither of you even recognize me? I shoved that damn Cube into Megatron for Merlin's sake!"

Mikalea took a closer look at him and finally recognition came into her eyes.

"When did you become a college student?"

"Security here is a joke. I came because a friend of mine mentioned a certain space cadet having a panic attack at a frat party. And when the Colonel sent me a police report saying that someone with the last name of Witwicky happened to have his house nearly blown up..." said James with a look.

In less than five minutes, they were on the road escaping the Decepticon that James had felt nearby. He had to admit, it was one hell of a disguise.

"Go, go, go!" shouted Sam.

Mikaela looked a little too happy running the Decepticon over. Then again, it had made a move on her boyfriend.

"Right, once we get to a secure area I'm arming all of you with the energon blasters," said James.

"What?"

"My company developed some high powered guns that need testing in combat situations. It's primary design is to only fire at something with a high enough energon reading. Our allies weren't too happy with it, but they at least agreed to help when they found out that it's only purpose is to seriously damage Decepticons."

"Allies? What allies?" asked Sam.

"I'll tell you later, once we have the civilian removed."

Unfortunately, the Decepticons had other plans. James swore like a sailor when he realized that Megatron knew about Sam's new memories.

"Crap..."

Megatron looked at James with fury in his optics. He remembered _him_ alright.

"Why the hell is it that every bastard with plans for world-wide massacre and domination always end up after my ass?" complained James.

Optimus chose that time to break in. Sam scrambled into his cabin while James lead the other team away. He only hoped that they could manage to regroup.

* * *

"What the hell do you mean, Optimus is dead?" said James.

"Megatron killed him."

"How bad was the damage?" asked James.

"He tore out a lot of his inner workings."

"Is he in pieces or did they just rip them out?"

"Ripped them out. Why?"

"Then he can still be saved."

"What?" asked Sam.

"Look, over the past few days, the parts of the All Spark that I had absorbed have been acting up more than usual. I think it's been trying to warn me."

"What are you talking about?"

James looked Sam in the eye and said bluntly "I absorbed most of the All Spark when I used it to deactivate Megatron last time. Mostly it just activates human tech that I touch, creating new bots to help us. But it's other function was to keep the knowledge accumulated by the Cybertronian people alive. Thanks to my magic, I have a filter that keeps it from overpowering my brain. You, however, are a mundane, which means when you absorbed the All Spark's memories you didn't get the same filter."

"What are we going to do now? Without Optimus..." said Mikaela.

"We regroup, and then we fight," said James calmly.

"Without Optimus we don't have a chance!" said Sam.

"You bloody moron... Optimus wasn't the only leader on Earth. While the bots I woke up followed him, they only did it because he was the one with the most intel on how to fight the enemy and blend in. In the event that Optimus Prime is incapacitated, I take over with Ironhide as my second," snapped James.

"What?"

"The bots I brought to life follow me and me alone if Optimus is gone. You guys simply get ready to move when we figure out what our next plan is."

James watched in shock as Sam became public enemy number one.

"Crap... Well at least now we know where the Fallen disappeared to after the First Primes vanished on Earth."

"First Primes?"

"A long time ago, while we were still learning to be human, the Cybertronians arrived. There were six Primes, and it was here that they had an argument on activating...something. The Fallen betrayed his brothers and became the first Decepticon leader. After the remaining Primes retrieved some object of power from him, they vanished here on Earth. I think that's what he's looking for."

"How do you know all this?"

James grinned at her, and whistled sharply. A large owl-like robot appeared and landed neatly on his shoulder.

"This...is Shoto. Every time the All Spark acts up, he records it. He also takes the memories it occasionally throws my way and processes it so I can sleep at night."

They heard the sound of a plane engine roaring overhead...though hardly anyone noticed the plane itself.

Equipped with the strongest Notice-me-not charm that could possibly be cast (the All Spark actually amplified magic, rather than work against it) the plane landed...sort of.

It turned into it's usual form mid landing, and did a perfect tuck in roll.

"Yo, Nightfire."

"_You need to get back to base. Gallaway has somehow managed to assume command at NEST, and he's trying to keep the Bot's stuck at Deigo Garcia,"_ said Nightfire.

"He _WHAT_?"

"_He has assumed command, and he's causing problems."_

"Shoto, conference mode, stat!"

"_You got it boss,"_ said the owl looking bot.

"General Black, I assume you've heard the news?" asked Lennox.

"Nightfire told me. Where the hell does he get off assuming command?"

"You were listed MIA, so he took over. There wasn't anything we could do about it."

"Call O'Neill and have him take over until we can reconnect."

"We tried that. O'Neill and his team are off world. And he won't listen to Luna at all."

"Hermione?"

"Civilian. Plus she's currently off world with Schrodinger."

"Bloody hell... I can't believe I'm saying this...but have you tried Anne?"

Lennox stared. Then realized exactly what James was saying.

Colonel Anne was considered the most insane woman alive, with Luna a close second. Her partner in crime, Angel, was currently ranked fifth. To even ask for her help in dealing with Gallaway...

"Right...best to break out the beers. We're going to need them..."

"Call Shoto if you still have any trouble. Anne should be able to hold him off until we have an idea of where to go."

Sam stared at him.

"Aren't you worried about someone hacking into that conversation?"

"Decepticons can hack into _human_ communications. Not Bot to Bot. Plus we've found that they have some major difficulty even hearing anything through the magical interference if they haven't been exposed to it before."

"Magic isn't real," said Mikeala.

"Oh?"

James gave her an evil smirk...then transformed into Kiba, which was what he named his wolf form. Mikeala and Sam both backed away quickly, shocked by the transformation.

James had managed to unlock his animagus form during the fight with Voldemort, roughly a month before the final battle. Sirius and surprisingly enough Anne had helped him through the process.

"Still say magic isn't real?"

"How...?"

"Long story short, I was born with it and had extensive training. Anyway we have bigger problems than that. It's obvious that you have absorbed a certain portion of the All Spark's memory banks, and the Fallen wants it. We need to find out what he is looking for and take it from him. And I think I know where to start looking."

* * *

James looked at the place Hermione had found, and started to laugh, hysterically.

"He's really gone down in the world, hasn't he?"

"Who?"

"Simmons."

"Wait, you mean that nut job that kidnapped us?" asked Sam.

"Yeah. Didn't you hear? Sector Seven got disbanded a month after the Autobot incident."

James walked in, grinning evilly. This was going to be fun.

"Well if it isn't my old pal Simmons. How's the deli business going?"

Simmons glared at him.

"Looks like you didn't do you job right Sparky. He's back isn't he?"

"Oi! It's not my fault that evil megalomaniacs with plans of mass genocide always come after me!" said James annoyed.

James was about to get on Dogstar when he heard beeping. Opening his rather small phone, he said "Talk to me."

"We found Cybertron."

"...What?"

"We found it. By accident," repeated Hermione.

"How?"

"We were doing some analysis on a planet with a far seeing scope, and someone picked up a familiar energy reading from Decepticon activity. When we sent a scout, they found the bodies of what appear to be 'bots, except these were ancient."

"How do we know they aren't from another battle?"

"The energon reading appear to be massive, more than enough to sustain a planet, but it was almost dormant to the point of nonexistence," said Hermione.

James felt like swearing.

"Which galaxy was this in?"

"I hitched a ride with Thor. We're in the Pegasus galaxy at the moment."

"Pegasus? No wonder we haven't found it with the telescope," said James.

"There's more. We found positive evidence of Ancient activity. _And_ there's a working gate system. We keep running into civilizations with working gate addresses that trade with each other."

"Great. Jack and the others will be thrilled with that. Listen, we have to run."

"Potter Luck kicking in again?"

"And how," said James.

* * *

"Holy crap," said James. He had never been in the Smithsonian Air and Space museum because he was afraid the cube energy that was inside him would accidentally wake a magibot or five.

After creating the dinobots, he had avoided any museums with technology displays.

This time however, Sam was the idiot who did the waking. James...honestly had no idea there was a reformed Decepticon in the museum. Then again he had waited by the car while Sam and his girlfriend talked to Simons.

He would have, but it would have deteriorated into mocking far too quickly.

Jetfire charged an energy between his hands...and James swore like a sailor once they landed.

"THAT HURT! A little warning next time you open a space bridge jerk!" shouted James.

"...I thought I gave proper warning!" countered Jetfire.

James honestly like the ornery bot. He didn't take crap from youngsters.

His phone started ringing again, and when he turned it on he heard Bill's voice. Fluer and Bill were currently helping out the cursebreakers in Egypt, and had volunteered to watch the twins for Molly. It was only for a weekend.

"_HELP!"_

"Bill, what's wrong?"

"THE TWINS! THEY ARE OUT OF CONTROL AND FLUER REFUSES TO COME OUT AND HELP!"

"Send me a picture of the room, I'll apparate straight there!" said James.

When the twins got hyped up, they wouldn't stop short of destroying a house. Fluer must have given them too many frogs again...or they found a stash of candy by themselves. Either way, James and Luna were the only ones who could control them at that point.

James really dreaded when the twins went to Hogwarts. Poor McGonagall would have kittens when she learned that James had unleashed the third generation Marauders on her.

"Guys, wait for me ten miles outside the border. I have to go pick up a pair of destructive chibis," said James.

"Who?"

"My almost two year old twins. My poor adopted older brother and his wife were stuck babysitting them, and apparently they managed to get ahold of enough sugar to go on a rampage," replied James with an absolutely serious expression.

"You have twins?" asked Mikaela.

"James and Lily. Both of them just as troublesome as their parents," grinned James proudly.

With a loud crack, he apparated to Bill's temporary apartment. James and Lily were _definitely_ on the warpath.

He gave a sharp, piercing whistle, and the twins appeared before him as if they had apparated.

"I thought I said to no terrorizing your uncles unless it's Fred or George?"

James put his thumb in his mouth while Lily giggled.

"Bill, I'll take them from here. Why don't you take a migraine potion and go get drunk?" said James.

"Thank god you came. Wait...how did you arrive so quickly? Most people can't apparate cross continental without fainting."

"Long story short, someone dropped us in Egypt without any warning. I just got your call once I recovered from the landing," he said dryly.

James and Lily held onto their father, giggling like the imps they were.

It had been somewhat shocking for Hermione when the twins started walking at seven months. But then again, James and Luna were both far more intelligent than they originally let on.

Then again, the twins walking early was _nothing_ to what happened when James and Lily said their first words. It was something he would remember forever, because it only proved something Hermione had mentioned off hand.

The twins spent far, far too much time with Fred and George. Then again the terror twins were always more than happy to babysit for James.

The fact that James' first word was 'Gorge' while Lily's was 'Gred' had brought tears to the twin's eyes. Shortly after both of the twins said 'mum' to Luna who had squealed with happiness.

* * *

Mikaela grinned when she saw the two, who looked like little angels.

Bumblebee and Dogstar shuddered. They weren't angels at all. They were little devils!

Once James brought the car seats out, Mikaela spent a good time playing with the twins. James didn't mind, since it kept them from being a pain.

Once they were across the border, they found a problem.

A camera had caught a picture of Sam, so now the cops were starting to bother them.

Eventually they managed to get a message out to Lennox through James, and prepared to find the Matrix of Leadership to revive Optimus.

James could only hope he didn't end up absorbing that power too. The All Spark was annoying enough to deal with!

Dogstar helped the twins up the doorway. They waddled after their father, who had long since learned to match his step with theirs. It was easier to control them that way.

James cheerfully kept up a dialogue of information that he got from the All Spark, and the twins would listen intently. Then again, James did have a nice voice to listen to.

Bumblebee blew open a small hole in the wall large enough for the humans to get in, and James went in first with a light spell. The twins followed, completely unafraid of the large metallic bodies that curled in on themselves.

Where normal toddlers freaked out by such beings, the twins took queues from their father first. If he wasn't afraid, then they weren't either.

Then again, they were the only children who did run from Norbert, which Charlie introduced them to as an experiment. Plus they had regular contact with the Autobots and Magibots.

(Molly had nearly ripped Charlie a new one when she heard that he let the twins near a live dragon. The fact that the dragon in question was practically tame and viewed them as nestlings was apparently beside the point for her.)

James and Lily shot out past their father, and immediately picked up the only thing that sparkled in the conjured light. James wasn't fast enough to stop them and besides he didn't think it would actually hurt the twins.

Hell, the All Spark was just as infamous and he had held it in his lap without any ill side effects.

It was only after Sam took it from them that it fell apart.

What no one noticed except for James was the odd pulse of energon from the object. A pulse that was absorbed by the twins.

James would have groaned, if he hadn't expected this much. Potter luck was definitely kicking in, only this time it was his children who were the target.

At least he knew how to handle the power should it manifest.

James kept his head down and his children close to him while the blasts went flying. The twins whimpered, but didn't scream or cry. They had been around the 'bots during firing practice.

Lennox still couldn't believe James brought his children with him. Then again, he wasn't the one who was going to deliver the news that the twins had been in a war zone to their surrogate grandmother.

He had met Molly Weasly once, and she was absolutely terrifying when she was protecting her family.

Sam managed to get the Matrix working in time to revive Optimus...only for it to be stolen by the Fallen.

Optimus wouldn't last for much longer unless they transplanted parts. Parts that Jetfire was willing to give, especially since it was to save Prime.

James made sure his children were safe, when he noticed something odd.

There hands were glowing.

The stronger the Matrix pulsed in the hands of the Fallen, the stronger the glow was.

James would have groaned, if he wasn't making sure the twins were okay.

They had accidentally absorbed some of the Matrix power. Fortunately, they had some of the All Spark in them from James. He had noted with some interest that they emitted low levels of Energon readings unless they were beside each other or in physical contact.

Then the energon readings read as if they were a full autobot about the same size of Bumblebee. That really didn't surprise James at all.

It was well documented that twins tended to display stronger power readings when together. Particularly if they were close. Fred and George were about average magic wise alone, but combined they could take on even Dumbledore.

Once Optimus took out the Fallen, James allowed his children to move around a little.

The Decepticons were already falling back, not wanting to face Optimus with his new power boost.

* * *

"You're not going to believe this," started Hermione.

"Hermione, we already know the twins have energon readings. What else did they get?"

"A boost in power levels for one thing. From what you told me about the Matrix, chances are that they will gain the ability to reboot dead autobots."

James couldn't help but feel some measure of relief from the fact that _he_ didn't get that energy pulse. While this would concern any normal parent, the fact was that any new developments would be handled by the Autobots and Hermione. They were the best equipped to deal with any problems that would arise.

"So we should start them on meditating soon?"

"Wait until they're four. You know the allies are going to want to study them."

"Like they don't already?"

James had put his foot down on any invasive tests. He didn't mind the children being studied, so long as James or one of his family was there to keep an eye on the kids.

He still found it hilarious that the Nox were absolutely terrified of his children when they were on sugar highs. Lya had told him bluntly that they had banned any sugar from being even _on_ the planet whenever the twins were around.

Omoc swore that the twins were demons incarnate, though that might have had something to do with the fact that their accidental magic always acted up around him in the most interesting ways.

It had taken him hours to realize that for some reason he had turned into a female with bright pink hair, and that only because Narim was laughing his ass off.

"So what now?" asked Hermione.

"Drop them off with Molly and get a bite to eat?" suggested James.

"Can't. She's helping Fluer get Bill away from the bottle after dealing with the twins. Strangely enough, no one has told her yet that you accidentally took them into a war zone with giant robots that could crush you all if they fell."

James winced. He had never been happier for the memory modification device, or as the more nerdy muggleborns called it, the Neuralizer.

(If you don't get it, then clearly you have never watched _Men In Black_.)

James had used the rather slim device (which was more or less a flashing light that had a obliviate spell loaded into it. It held ten charges and had nobs that didn't really do anything but were there purely for decoration) on anyone who would have squealed to Molly about taking his children into a fight.

"In that case... What would you say to taking them to see Grimlock?"

Grimlock was possibly the only Magibot who _wasn't _terrified of the twins. Then again, James had authorized Charlie to open a private dragon reserve on the island with the Dinobots.

Hagrid had been delighted to head the reserve, since he was the best at handling the large animals.

Dragons had absolutely no problems with the Dinobots, if anything it was easier for the dragonhandlers to deal with the beasts thanks to the Dinobots. They seemed to view the Dinobots as the alpha in the whole deal.

The fact that Dinobots could actually blow flame out of their mouths helped a good deal.

James and Hermione dropped the twins off with Hagrid, who cheerfully took the twins. He wasn't afraid of them, instead he viewed them with the same fascination that had lead him to hatch Aragog.

* * *

James and Luna were on the Asgard ship. Thor had brought them to confirm whether or not they had in fact found Cybertron. Since James was the closest thing they had to a database for the Autobots, he was sent to check.

He looked outside the window, enjoying the view thoroughly.

"Having fun, love?"

"Always. Think Hagrid can handle the twins for the week?"

"If anyone could deal with them and not run screaming, it would be him. Besides, you know they love dogs."

James had introduced the twins to Sirius, and once they were around his dog form, they fell in love with dogs. Once they were older James fully planned to get them one.

James had been with the twins when they met Fluffy and Fang for the first time, and it was with great shock that the Cerberus hadn't started going ballistic around the hyper children.

Then again, they were used to much scarier things, like Ironhide. Fluffy seemed to think they were puppies. And Fang let them crawl all over him.

"We're here," said Thor.

James went into the shuttle bay, and got his special suit on. The allies had agreed to help build a permanent space station around Earth, since it was for defensive purposes against any attacks from space. There wasn't a chance of the station being aimed _towards_ Earth.

It was currently under construction with help from the Tollan and Nox.

Once they were on the planet...James gasped audibly.

"_What's wrong?" _asked Thor.

"The planet... It's alive with Energon. I think we found it."

James had three hours of air, thanks the bubblehead charm refreshing the air. Four if he didn't breath in too much.

He explored the planet with help from Dogstar, who navigated the crevices with his thrusters.

The more he saw, the more sure he was that they had found the Autobot's home planet.

Then he made a rather startling discovery.

"Thor, you aren't going to believe this."

"_What did you find?"_

"We have a Stargate. Is your ship equipped with a scanner to register this gate address?"

"_No, but we can get one later. Your air is running low, can you use that gate to return to the ship?"_

"A way to test if it's still functioning? Let's find out."

James walked up...and found a problem.

"Thor, the DHD is missing. I see a bunch of fragments around here. Looks like it was hit was a blast quite a long time ago."

James had an idea.

"I think it's time to test if Hermione's Personal DHD works or not."

James took out something from his pocket. It was slim, black in color, and fit around his wrist. On it were intricate engravings with runes and magical symbols, most notably from the Scandinavian region. Thor had even helped Hermione with the calculations.

James slipped it on his right wrist...and waved it across the Stargate from one end to the other.

The Stargate came alive. The coordinates smoothly activate in sequence, and the puddle came out. He threw a rock through the portal to insure that it went to the correct address.

"_So this is a mechanical rock. Interesting,"_ said Luna.

James grinned and walked through.

"Shall we tell the 'Bots we found their home world?"

"Maybe if we found a planet for them to use as a way station or something."

"Well at least now we know _where_ Cybertron is. Now we can help the Autobots rebuild their home," said Luna.

"True."


	10. Chapter 10

The space station was coming along smoothly and plans were in the works to revisit the other planets in their galaxy. The moon, in particular, was in the works of exploration.

As James had noted with some interest, the only manned launch to the moon that was publicly documented was the one the Americans made.

The rest were mostly space satellites, and he had noted that the dark side was never documented in length.

Something he planned to fix within the next year or so.

Hermione had even given him some good news for the entire family to celebrate.

Narim had asked her to marry him, and she had said yes. It would be a big step forward for the inter-planetary relations, and it meant Hermione wouldn't be bored out of her mind in the relationship.

Ron had already married Hannah Abbot, so there was really nothing to hold her back.

* * *

James read the report with some irritation. For the past five months, all the preparations for the moon launch had been stalled. Someone or something was sabotaging the project, making the cost go beyond the original specs.

He frowned.

The cost shouldn't be this high for such a short hop. And they were mostly researching their natural satellite in hopes that they could create a moon base later.

His plans for the space station was a hit, and his idea to ease some of the burden of overpopulation had been met with approval. The only problem was the set backs and the bizarre high cost.

So the only solution he could see was to take the entire process off world entirely, and set it off in secret.

It wouldn't be _that_ hard to set a Stargate on Mars and launch from there.

James made a note of that idea and sent it through the appropriate channels.

The idea was bounced around for an entire month...before it landed back on his desk.

"Rejected?"

Later he heard rumors that the moon launch was going to be put off indefinitely unless they could cut the costs down.

Which made absolutely no sense because _he_ was personally funding the mission. If they were successful and documented the dark side of the moon, then Dragonfire would get a massive boost in sales within a month.

So James decided to try to find what was really causing the delay. And he enlisted the only two he trusted to get to the bottom of it all.

Fred and George. They were more devious than anyone every really gave them credit for. And they were armed with veritaserum and the newly developed Neuralizer. No one would be aware of their questions until after the fact.

* * *

"Let me get this straight. There is something on the dark side of the moon that is being covered up?"

"Someone is working with the Decepticons to keep the dark side under wraps."

James grinned evilly.

"Well if _that_ is the case...then who's to say we have to make a planned mission to the moon? The space station is more than equipped to handle a small team to investigate it."

A week later supplies were sent in secret to the space station. Supplies that had nothing to do with building it. No one but the pilots knew about it.

In three months, the one sabotaging the moon launch took notice that certain people were being sent into space...and not returning with the ship.

It wasn't until the last person was on the station that James went up himself...and broadcasted to the entire world that the moon launch was changed from an earth orbit to a space orbit launch.

His stock holders wouldn't be happy, but James wanted it to be a surprise.

"_Ladies and Gentlemen of the Earth, it is with warm tidings that I speak to you now on the Space Station Hope. Tomorrow, we shall be sending a manned mission to the moon directly from space. We hope to document our natural satellite to further our understanding of space, and to give humanity a new reason to try and bring peace on Earth. As the world once united with the sole purpose of putting a man on the moon, I hope that this endeavor will help in putting old grudges and complaints aside for one common goal._

"_Next year, a select group of individuals will be chosen to join a heroic mission to colonize a small part of space. These people will be using an up til now unknown device which will take them to the Pegasus galaxy, where we hope that a colony can be established. Dragonfire, the company which has spearheaded a massive amount of improvements in the field of astrophysics and mechanics, will be funding this project. And now, I give to you and unbiased picture of the moon. Tomorrow, we will be broadcasting a full picture of our natural satellite as a show of good faith towards man!" _said James proudly.

Anne looked at him once the camera was off.

"You sure it was smart to announce to everyone about the expedition to Atlantis?"

"It was either that or deal with idiots. Besides, this sends a clear message to the fools who tried to stop us from looking at the moon. And...I'm trying to give our allies a reason to help us. If they see that we are trying to unite our world, then maybe it might put them in a better mood towards us," said James.

It was true that their allies were having trouble trusting them with anything big. James hoped that by showing a sign of unity, like exploring their natural satellite, they would show a bit more trust in Earth in return. They would make a scouting mission to the moon in an hour to ensure that the fact aliens were around stayed hidden.

* * *

James was one of the few that were cleared to investigate the moon. He took only those he could trust explicitly, and they were all armed with magic. They could look as long as needed with the heating, bubble head and light charms fully active.

That was mostly a safety precaution since if anything went wrong with the rather outdated suits NASA used, they would be screwed over without magic. Because of that, they went in charms active.

"Everyone reading me okay? Ratchet?" asked James.

"_We read you loud and clear James. Any trouble and we'll rescue you before those charms run out of energy," _said Ratchet.

"Copy. Alright folks, let's get a move on. Remember, any robots we find are out of our hands, so let's just find what we can and leave. This is a recon only mission, so ask me before we take anything...though if you pick up a few moon rocks I'll pretend not to notice," said James with a grin.

The twins chuckled at that, and they set off.

Fifteen minutes later, they were all staring. Before them was a ship manned by familiar robots, who were either all dead or their spark was so low it made little difference. Since the children had absorbed the Matrix (in an almost identical way their father absorbed the All Spark), they had found an unusual power come forth whenever they joined hands. Fortunately Hermione and Narim had data when they were analyzing James after the incident in Mission City to go off on, so there weren't too many accidents of awakening bots.

Those that did wake up were almost immediately shipped off to another planet so they could absorb large quantities of other world technology and grow.

It had come as quite a shock to Ratchet at the time to learn that any bot awakened by James or his children qualified as hatchlings, despite their origin.

"Ratchet, I need to ask you something. Are there any missing autobot ships that may have fallen in this region of space?"

"_There is only _one_ ship on record, and it had taken heavy damage the last time it was seen on Cybertron. What have you found?"_

"We found a large ship full of either dead or comatose bots, and I'm hoping they aren't Decepticons Do we have your permission to start removing a few things? We'll leave anything that even remotely appears to be a weapon up to you and Optimus once we return."

"_I'll ask Optimus... He said he doesn't mind, but to be careful. We'll retrieve the bodies once we get a better ship working,"_ said Ratchet.

James grinned. Inter-world communication through the magibots was so useful! It made talking to Optimus on Earth a hundred times easier.

Even if he would have a hell of a time fitting through the Stargate, no matter what form he was in. He was just too big.

James carefully crawled into a small hole, and found a life support system working at minimum capacity. Inside were odd long devices that didn't appear to be weapons of any kind. Considering the drag marks they had seen on the way in, and the fact that one of these same devices was partially crushed under the ship, he didn't think it was a weapon at all.

Megatron didn't need any weapons to kill Autobots...they had a numbers advantage on them from the start.

James silently turned off his communicator and looked at his comrades above him.

"Can any of you help me lift this to the surface? I'm getting a real bad feeling just leaving these here."

"Maneuver it so we can use our magic, and we'll see if we can't lift it up!" shouted Fred.

James turned on the communicator as he slowly lifted up the device. The red one in particular gave him a nasty feeling about it. Or a warning from his magic that it was extremely dangerous.

Half an hour later, James and his team were returning to their brooms. It had taken extensive testing, but they found that the brooms did in fact work in space. They were just a lot faster without the wind and gravity dragging them.

Between the ropes James had and the twins keeping an eye on their progress, they returned to the station to find Ratchet waiting for them.

"What have you got there?" he asked.

"I have no idea, but they gave me a real bad feeling. They're too small to be convention weapons, and somehow I think if they were the Autobots on board would have used them. There were a lot of drag marks on the ground too. We even found a crushed one under the ship, and managed to bring that back with us."

"How many dead?"

"I have no idea. We counted at least thirty, with one in suspension."

Ratchet nodded. At least they had confirmed that there were in fact bots on the moon. How many lay there he didn't know.

* * *

_Two years later..._

Hermione looked up from the readings, her eyes alight with interest. Her belly was swollen with the new life that was growing in it.

"What have you found love?"

"Something very fascinating. These 'pillars' as Optimus called them appear to have been based off the Stargate...only they seem to be connected to one central control unit. Perhaps if we could study this, we could solve that problem the Autobots have been having with the Stargate."

Narim chuckled. Almost all the Autobots (except for a few of the smaller ones) had great difficulty even getting _into_ the Stargate without knocking it over. Optimus in particular had seemed unhappy with the fact that he had to take the long way around because he simply couldn't fit no matter what they tried.

On the other hand, thanks in part to the Matrix and a lot of help from some magical mechanics (and quite a few trades with the Tollans for parts) over twenty new Autobots had been reactivated.

Optimus and the other Autobots were scheduled to make another trip to the moon, this time to see if they could bring back Sentinel Prime. The only reason they had waited so long was to help the recently revived bots adjust to the rules of Earth.

Well, that and to keep Sentinel from blowing a gasket when he found out that the pillars had not only been recovered, but were so far away that he couldn't form a space bridge to the world where they were kept.

James, in a flash of wisdom and foresight, had ordered them devices to be moved off world the moment he learned that they possibly held the same ability as the Stargate combined with the strange Space Bridge ability some of the older Autobots had.

So far their allies had discovered quite a bit about the technology involved, and plans were being made to create portable versions that worked with the Stargate mapping systems. The Asgard were contributing a lot to this, seeing as how they were one of the few with the largest map of the galaxy.

Within a week Hermione had devised a small prototype to use. Depending on the results, they could very well be making these for longer trips.

Unfortunately, they still had no luck finding Atlantis, despite the fact that O'Neill had brought back an Ancient battery which powered the old outpost.

A few days after that they learned from James (courtesy of the All Spark memories) that the Autobots had traded extensively with the Ancients before they returned to Earth.

James was the one to come up with an interesting theory about why the All Spark had been sent in Earth's general direction. Perhaps the All Spark had been sent to the Ancients in hopes that they would at least keep the memory of Cybertron alive?

Though the dark hints the All Spark had given him of an ancient enemy on par with the Gatebuilders themselves had curbed most of the discovery.

Hermione handed the device to one of the Nox. She slipped it on her hand and walked close to the Stargate. If it worked, then it would hopefully land the girl close to the test site's Gate.

She tapped the address into the console, and a small pillar of light a little taller than she was appeared. She walked through it...and sent a message back. There were only two words, but they spoke volumes on what had just been accomplished.

"_It works._"

The celebration of that news lasted a good two days before they sent the message to Earth that the first prototype was successful.

* * *

Sentinel awoke very quickly. The power that the Matrix held had rebooted him fast enough for him to strike at Optimus.

Somehow he knew that the bot was holding something from him, but he didn't know what.

"What of the pillars?!" he demanded.

"Gone," said James.

"What do you mean gone? We had hundreds on that ship!" demanded Sentinel.

"When we finally managed to get up there for a good long look, we found numerous drag marks near the crash site, and over thirty Autobots in a perilous stasis mode that we've been trying to help get settled in," said James.

He wasn't totally lying, but he felt something off about the old Autobot. Why was he so concerned about the pillars? He should have been worried more about the condition of his men.

"That's impossible, everyone other than me had already died when the ship crashed. At the very least it was barely sustaining autopilot before that went out when I went into the cargo hold."

"We have a few allies that helped us to patch up the Bots remaining on that ship, and we used a combination of All Spark energy and the power of the Matrix to reactivate them. They seemed to take the news that the war had been lost fairly well, considering they were on the losing end to begin with."

Sentinel narrowed his optics. He knew the men on his ship were dead. He had watched them go down one by one as the ship fell apart around them.

"Are you certain that the pillars were taken?" he demanded.

"Like I said, the pillars are gone. You wouldn't be able to find them anywhere on Earth or on the nearest Gate addresses. We have absolutely no idea where they are," said James honestly.

Sentinel didn't need to know he ordered them off planet and out of the outlying planetary systems as a safety precaution. Hermione had already told him that the 'pillars' as they were called were only able to activate under the energy signature of one Autobot. Even Optimus couldn't use them.

And that had rung several alarms in his mind, which is why he asked the Tollan to check them out. After he had wished Hermione a congrats for her first child.

Sentinel had appeared rather angry over that. Clearly he had taken the control pillar with him on purpose.

"We _did_ find an odd device half crushed under the ship, if that makes you feel any better," admitted James.

Sentinel took one look at it and knew that it was one of the lesser pillars, not the one he wanted. Which begged the question...why was he so upset that the control pillar was lost?

* * *

A week after the reawakening of Sentinel, they found a slight snag with the old bot. He recognized the energy being emitted from the newly delivered prototype that James was testing on Earth. He had expressed an interest in the Stargate program so James let him watch as he tried the new device.

"I thought you said the control pillar was gone?" he asked angrily.

"It is gone. Like I told you before, it's nowhere on Earth or the outlying planetary systems. It hasn't been here in two years now," said James pleasantly.

"I demand that you return it to me this instant! You humans don't have the necessary skills to use them, let alone actually activate them!"

"You are right when you say _humans_ couldn't figure out how to activate and control their ability. However we didn't hand them over to humans. We handed them to the Asgard."

Sentinel, if he had been made of flesh would have paled. Instead his optics went very wide.

"The Asgard? They're a myth!"

"No, Thor and the others are very much real and have been helping us complete the space station that allowed us to find you and your ship. They found the pillars to be a fascinating achievement and have recently started to make portable models for everyday use. Why are you so desperate to get the control pillar back?"

"If you or these...allies...managed to activate it you could do untold damage. The pillar would activate all the others!"

"How the hell can it activate the others from several trillion light years away?"

"A space bridge can cross over a trillion miles at max," said Sentinel annoyed.

"Huh, good to know. Anyway even if it does get activated by accident, the Tollan would most likely figure out how to turn it off without it destroying the Earth," said James with a shrug.

James, in a fit of annoyance, finally returned the control pillar to Sentinel just to shut him up about the subject. What Sentinel _didn't_ know was that James didn't trust him at all. He placed a shut down switch inside the pillar in a place Sentinel wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out.

A few weeks later, a series of murders across the world caught his attention. Each person was a very interested party in the entire Moon fiasco a few years ago.

James had made a point to keep an eye on people who showed too strong an interest in what his team had found. And now they were dying one by one within days of each other.

As a result, he sent a specialized team to infiltrate the job that Sam had gotten in Accuretta Systems. If the Decepticons were involved with Sentinel, James wanted to be on top of the boy just in case.

A few days into the infiltration Sam was attacked. Luckily the twins got the kid out in time.

* * *

"Hello Sam. Haven't seen you since that Fallen fiasco," said James.

"I see you've been busy," said Sam. His girlfriend right behind him.

"Dragonfire doesn't change the world unless the evil paperwork is done. So I heard you were attacked again," said James.

Relieved to finally be taken seriously, Sam told him everything he knew.

"We knew there was something going on at the moon, that was why a specialized team went up to investigate. Recently there have been several murders of people involved heavily in the moon program."

James told Sam everything he knew about what was likely going on. The kid had a good head on his shoulders, most of the time, and for some odd reason he seemed to attract Decepticon trouble like he did the world ending kind.

"Tell you what, we'll leave some Magibots with you and your girlfriend and if you find anything important you need to share with Lennox and the military, you have them contact me. I'm afraid the Director of National Intelligence doesn't take well to civilian interference," said James.

Sam left with two of the senior Magibots, both disguised as watches. His girlfriend Carly didn't seem to like the idea of her boyfriend getting into trouble again, but at least felt some comfort that someone actually _cared_ about what Sam said.

* * *

James looked up from the reports. Something big was happening and he had a nasty feeling Sentinel was the cause of it all. Everything started to happen after he gave the bot that control pillar, despite his wishes.

Sam was going to be in the center of this mess again, he just knew it. He had already gotten Simmons back in the game, to his annoyance.

Because of his bad feeling, James was personally in the new Autobot hangers that were in DC. For some odd reason most of the Decepticon activity kept happening around Sam, and therefore in the US.

He looked at his new first generation personal space bridge. The Tollan had cleared it for those in the know of the Stargate (and the Autobots by extension) to test on Earth for emergency evacuations.

The Stargate command was using them in the field and so far they had yet to find more than a few odd glitches.

James was glad that they had rigged a special satellite around Cybertron to prevent the Decepticons from using any space bridges to return. Only those with a special, magically created code, could even get there now. They had placed it there when the Tollan found a bizarre preset in the pillars set to Cybertron. If they hadn't placed a seal to keep space bridges from forming near the planet, they could easily teleport the planet to anywhere in the solar system if a bridge was open long enough.

Lennox walked up to James worried.

"We just sent another magical team to the Moon. They were picking up a large amount of energon signatures all over the damn thing, and not anywhere near the ship."

"How big?"

"Big. As in massive. There were multiple signatures all over the moon, close to the dark side. And I don't think they're friendly either," said Lennox.

"The question I have is how long have those things been buried in the moon?" asked James.

"No idea. However, if things go south it might be a good idea to get most of the Autobots evacuated from Earth. You know Megatron will pull something to get rid of them."

"Luckily he only knows about Autobots. Magibots are registered with the Ministry, so none of the governments can touch them without outing the magical communities. All the bigger ones are off the planet anyway."

James grinned at that. Magibots were littered all over the planet now, in key points around the world. They were being used as sentient communication devices and computers. The Magical Communities had undergone a serious overhaul when he introduced the Magibots.

If magic shorted out regular electronics, then those that ran on their own Spark would have to be the next best thing to electricity. As an added bonus, the Pure Bloods had started to give so-called Dark creatures second looks after being chewed out by their new laptops about their abuse.

Why? Because the laptops and other common devices absorbed any spell sent at them, even ones geared at shorting out electronics. It only made them stronger, and Magibots tended to combine and cause destruction if mistreated.

A lot of Pure Bloods had to relocate their things after the Magibots destroyed their mansions. Though for some odd reason books were left alone.

James fully blamed that on Hermione's influence. It was the only logical explanation to it.

* * *

Sam was coming into the NEST base with Simmons, with new information. Hundreds of pillars had been taken from the crash site long before Apollo 11 even made it to the moon. Since Autobots were never around in 1963, it was assumed that the Decepticons had the pillars.

The million-dollar question was, why hadn't they activated them when they first found the ship? If the Tollan and others could partially awaken the control pillar without Sentinel's help long enough to make smaller versions, then why hadn't Megatron or his lackeys attempted the same thing? They were used to that technology.

James could only speculate that there was something big Sentinel Prime wasn't telling them. When he heard Sam was coming in with Sentinel Prime behind him, thinking the bot needed to be protected from the Decepticons, James had other ideas.

"I want all active personnel ready for a fire fight! Something tells me Sentinel is lying to us about something and I don't want to be caught with my pants down! Medics, be ready for injuries and for Merlin's sake people, get ready to repair any Autobots!" shouted James, once he hung up on Sam.

"_We have an Energon Alert. Energon readings detected on the D.C. Parkway. Currently tracking three black Suburbans."_

James swore. Something was definitely wrong, and he didn't want casualties on his watch. The one thing on his mind was the fact that there was a very real possibility that Sentinel had switched sides.

If an old bot like Jetfire could change from being a Decipticon to Autobot, then there was every chance that an Autobot could become a Decepticon without warning. And Sentinel wasn't a fool. The way he acted was not how Optimus had told James. He acted far too shifty, and he was too concerned about the pillars for it to be normal.

"I want eyes on Sam and Sentinel! Magibots, transform and roll out!" James called out to the bots on base.

In unison, ten of the aerial Magibots transformed and went straight to the Parkway.

It had become a battleground, with Bumblebee doing most of the damage. The others flanked him, and Sentinel had gone on slightly ahead. James only felt slightly sorry for the people of the cars that were getting flipped over and could only hope that they were wearing seat belts.

The three cars tried to strike at Bee but not once did they go after Sentinel, who was easily the biggest threat.

James' eyes narrowed, and he immediately cleared the base of all personnel. If Sentinel was a Decepticon, then it was better to let him have the pillars and attack from behind later. They didn't need the control pillar that much anyway.

"I want three medic teams sent to the Parkway to heal the people in those cars!" barked James.

Three Magibots rolled out with full teams of medics. James did not like have civilian deaths on his watch when a medical team could have been sent to prevent it.

Sentinel's optics narrowed when he noticed the distinctive lack of humans in the base. Ironhide and Dino were outside taking care of the last two Decepticons that had attacked them on the Parkway, but aside from that the place was empty. Something was up.

When the human boy Sam mentioned that he was apart of some plot the Decepticons had for the pillars, he knew his time had come.

Sentinel leveled his weapon at Ironhide. He would try to stop him, and that was something he would not tolerate.

"_REFLECTO MAXIMA!"_ screamed James, leveling his wand at Ironhide. It was a spell Hermione had created when they learned a simple shield charm simply wouldn't cover a staff weapon or consecutive hits from a Za'at gun.

The blast hit the new reflective shield charm and barely saved Ironhide.

Sentinel gave James a cold look, and went into the base to retake his control pillar.

James was immediately on the radio screaming at them not to engage the Bot, but to retreat until a plan could be made.

The amount of destruction Sentinel was causing just to retake the pillar was ridiculous.

Mearing was pissed.

"What the _hell_ do you think you're doing Sentinel?!" she demanded.

"I am a Prime! I do not take orders from you!" Sentinel answered.

Lennox got her out of the way before the former Prime tried to kill her. She _had_ been less than respectful to him after all.

"Do not engage Sentinel! I repeat, do not engage the bot! Fall back and wait for further orders!" James kept repeating.

He had to fight every instinct he had to go in there and stop the raging Decepticon. Sentinel would tear him to pieces if he went in there, as was demonstrated by his ability to rip the planes, helicopters and various vehicles inside to bits just to get his control pillar.

When Sentinel got what he wanted, he left.

Optimus couldn't believe that Sentinel had left. That he had betrayed the cause. Mearing was blaming him for the fact that Sentinel had destroyed the base. Finally James had enough.

"Mearing, shut the hell up!"

James went to Optimus.

"Optimus, look at me. This is _not_ on you. You had no idea that your friend had turned against you. Against your allies. Obviously Sentinel believed Megatron had already won. Maybe he was tired of being on the losing side. The point is, that it is _not your fault._ We are going to get the control pillar back or destroy it. Sentinel might be salvageable, but right now we have bigger problems. If Sentinel is siding with Megatron, then there is every chance that they will turn the humans against the Autobots. We need to get you off Earth and put body doubles just in case."

"Sentinel is my responsibility," said Optimus firmly.

"I'm not saying he isn't. But if we are going to stop whatever plan Megatron and Sentinel have concocted, then we need all hands on deck," said James.

"If Sentinel truly has turned, then we will need the assistance of the Magibots under your command. How many are still on Earth?" asked Optimus.

"Most of those are Civvies, we don't need to call them in. Not to mention the fact it would take at least half of Britain to form a decent sized bot. No, we need those that aren't working as tech for the magicals. And those are currently off world at the moment. It would take a day or two for them to get back and under proper wards," said James.

"How do you plan to get them here when most of those can't even fit through the gates?" asked Optimus.

"I forgot to tell you...thanks to those pillars you let us borrow we got a working teleport system that allows gate travel. You can go off world like the smaller bots. We also have a satellite system around Cybertron after we noticed an odd preset in the control pillar. I think Sentinel's plan is to bring Cybertron _here_ and make the humans rebuild it."

"Sentinel could work around that," said Ironhide. He was still a bit shaken up by the near miss with Sentinel's weapon.

"With a magically generated code?"

"Autobots and Decepticons can work around human technology. Chances are fairly high that he would find a way," Ironhide pointed out.

James thought that over. It was possibly, just very unlikely. He swore. There was only _one _method that would insure Sentinel could never bring Cybertron to Earth's orbit...and it would involve sending the twins to a satellite and inputting scramble codes the entire time until the pillars were taken out.

"Sometimes I hate my life."

* * *

"Daddy, why are we on the Shield Satellites?" asked Lily. Much like her grandmother, she was sharp as a tack.

"Remember the bot that had those devices sleeping with him? He turned out to be bad. I don't want anything to happen to you or our friends."

"You want us to insure whatever he's planning doesn't work?" asked James. Harry patted his son on the head.

"I suspect Sentinel might attempt to bring Cybertron to our home, and we can't let that happen. If the computers tell you about an incoming space bridge from Earth without a magical signature, I want you and Lily to do everything you can to stop it. I don't care if you have to use the Matrix Power, you keep that bridge from connecting."

"And if we can't?" said James.

"James, Lily, I have every confidence that you can and will stop that bridge. I think it's time we sent a message to those Decepticons that humans are not as weak as they assume. That we can outsmart and outmatch them without the Autobots helping us."

"We'll do it daddy," said Lily.

"I know you will sweetie. I believe in you. And just so we're clear, if you succeed you get a full week of whatever you want. No missions, no Stargate, just time between you, me and mommy. Amusement parks, staying up late, you name it."

Now he knew he had them hooked. Because of his job, he rarely got to spend a lot of time with his kids. But he never once put the work before them. He was always there to tuck them in, even if it meant waiting until they fell asleep before sneaking out to do work. So an entire week with just them was a luxury.

* * *

James came back to find 'Optimus' and the Autobots being forced to leave. 200 Decepticons had come through the smaller space bridge thanks to Sentinel's doing. Energon detectors had been going nuts for days.

While a trip to Cybertron was possible within three days, it took several minor jumps in order to get there.

During that time, Sentinel had sent the UN a single message.

"**Defenders of Earth. We have come for your natural resources to rebuild our damaged planet. When we have transported all we need, we will leave your world in peace. For such peace to exist, you must immediately exile the Autobot rebels you have harbored. Nonnegotiable. Renounce the rebels. We await your reply."**

James was immediately called in by the Queen as a consult once she heard it.

"What do you think, Sir James?"

"Honestly? I think it's a load of codswallop, if you'll pardon my language. Renounce the Autobots, when they have done nothing but help us? When they have stood by our side through every conflict?"

"We agree. This demand is preposterous, and We do not agree to negotiate with terrorist and monsters. This Sentinel Prime shall find that there is one country that shall stand by Our allies even if it means going against an Alien threat."

"In all likelihood your Majesty, I believe this Sentinel seeks to bring Cybertron here and turn us into a work force to restore it. He never specified what the natural resource was that he would need, and if there were such a thing I believe Optimus would have mentioned it sooner. We have already moved Optimus and the other Autobots to the nearest planet with a gate so that we can retrieve them once the Deceptions had made their true plan clear."

"We see that you have everything in hand. Have you alerted the Americans?"

"Not in the least!" said James a little too cheerfully.

"Explain."

"The Americans have a rather bad history of being fickle. Yes, they have harbored the Autobots and restarted the gate program before everyone had a chance to do so, but their government is full of greedy, corrupt politicians who are more concerned with their posts than they are about protecting others. I would sooner trust a copper from a small town than I would their government. While their democracy is admirable, placing the election of those to serve in their stead directly in the people's hands, the sad fact is that the average American could care less about who they vote into office, and they rarely double-check their facts until after that person has screwed up."

The Queen wisely said nothing. It was clear that while James admired certain people in the military, he had no faith in the government as a whole.

"What of the Witwicky boy?"

"I haven't seen Sam in three days. And something tells me that the enemy will use him against us."

"We wish for you to oversee the 'Autobots' leaving orbit. In the event that the enemy betrays Us, we want you on the scene. Take whomever you need," said the Queen.

"Yes, your Majesty. I am, as always, your humble servant and knight," said James bowing.

* * *

James was the only one to notice Sam acting strangely. He went with the boy to the Xanthian, the Autobot ship which brought the second wave in. He didn't tell Sam that the Autobot he was speaking two was a cleverly made fake that was voice by the boys several billion miles away.

"Optimus?"

"What your leaders say is true. This was all my fault. I told them whom to trust. I was so wrong."

"No, you weren't. I told you before Optimus Prime. You couldn't have known that certain facts were beyond your notice," said James firmly.

He would inform them later that the Queen had never agreed to send them off. If need be, she would have granted them a hiding place under many magical wards if they had asked. Unfortunately, Energon detectors spoke of Decepticons in Europe, which would have made hiding impossible.

"That doesn't make it your fault. It just makes you human for a change."

"Remember this. You may lose your faith in us, but never in yourselves."

"I need to know how you're going to fight back. I know there's a strategy, I know you're coming back with reinforcements, something. I know there's a plan. You can tell me. No other human will ever know."

"There is no plan," Optimus lied.

Sam had no idea Optimus was a fake, and in order for the ruse to work he could never know until after the fact.

"If we just do what they want, how are we ever going to live with ourselves?"

"You are my friend, Sam. You always will be. But your leaders have spoken. From here, the fight will be your own."

"Not all our leaders agree with the Americans," said James firmly.

Optimus passed by Bumblebee, and he said "Make it short. We're loading up."

James left Sam and 'Bumblebee' to talk. He noticed the watch on the opposite arm, and knew that the Decepticons had definitely forced him to try to expose any plans the Autobots had.

Simmons wheeled his chair next to Sam and said "Years from now, they're going to ask us, 'Where were you when they took over the planet?'. We're going to say 'We just stood by and watched.'"

"Sadly, I happen to agree with that sentiment," said James.

James stood there and watched as Starscream attacked the shuttle right after launch. He was recording the entire thing for later as a way to show the UN what a monumental mistake they had made. How they had made the worst possible decision. The Queen would feel vindicated when the English Ambassador pointed out that among the countries in the UN, they had stood behind the Autobots the entire time. Europe had been the only continent that had argued against Sentinel Prime's demand.

* * *

"Wait, so let me get this straight...they decided to stage the end of the world in _Chicago_?" said James in disbelief.

"What does it matter where they decided to set up shop?"

"Nothing...just that I'll be making a _lot_ of fantasy nerds very happy once we start the counter attack," said James amused beyond reason.

The reason for that was simple. Once they started the offensive, James, no he would go by Harry for this attack, would be riding in on Grimlock playing polka music.

(If you don't know the reason why, then you are not a true sci-fi fan!)

It was a good thing Grimlock and the others could handle the standard charms that would put them on the same bracelet that once held Nightfire.

"Are you sure you want to do this Sam?" asked Harry. (About the only time he went by his first name was when his son was around.)

"She's done nothing but try to help me, I can be there in 15 hours," said Sam.

"You're not going alone," said Epps.

"Damn straight he isn't going alone. No way in hell am I sending you out there without backup. Dogstar, I want you to follow him," said Harry.

"You got it partner," said the wolf robot hybrid.

Out of all the Magibots who were awakened by Harry, the only one that remained by his side the entire time was Dogstar. Even Nightfire hadn't remained on Earth once the Tollan and Asgard learned of him. He was currently working with Thor.

"Also, there isn't a chance in hell I am letting you go into what is definitely going to be an all out war zone with out dated weaponry. Guns don't really damage bots," said Harry.

"What you got in mind?" asked Epps.

Harry grinned.

"You gather your team, and meet me before you hit Chicago. I'll get your unit outfitted and ready to cause all hell to those Decepticon bastards."

* * *

"Welcome back to Stargate Command, General Black. What can we do for you?" said Jack.

"I assume you heard the news about the Autobots?"

"I heard they were 'taken out' by the other guys. What do you need?"

"I need the collapsible Jaffa staffs. I know the prototypes are ready for testing in the field and I plan to...test them...for you, said Harry grinning.

"Think anyone will mind if we help you...test...them?" asked Jack. He liked the Autobots, they had a good sense of humor and they helped a lot when the Gou'ald attacked.

"I don't think anyone will question it. Sam will need all the help he can get to take those bastards out," said Harry.

"In that case, let me make a call to the off duty teams."

Epps and Sam met up fifteen miles outside Chicago. The place was a disaster area.

"Where is he?"

"Right behind ya," said Harry.

"Who are they?" asked Epps.

"These guys are your back up. I have to get Grimlock and the others off the island in order to really bring the pain down on these jerks. But before you lot head in, we'll give you a basic run down of these new toys we've been developing off world."

"Off world?"

"What, you thought the Autobots were the only aliens out there? We've been developing Earth as a force for the general universe to take serious for years now. Now, before you say anything take this," said Harry.

He handed Sam a short, tube-like object about the size of a standard tonpa weapon.

"This, gentlemen, is the first generation collapsible Staff weapon. It fires an energy blast known to penetrate Mecha armor like the Deceptions, within one to two hits. This switch here activates and turns it into a weapon. Flip it again, it returns to the size of a tonpa. This here is the firing mechanism, hit this and the staff shoots at anything it's aimed at. Unfortunately we haven't found the maximum distance yet, but it will go for a good five yards at least. Do _not_ aim this at anything human, because short of a sturdy shield spell this can and will kill anything you hit with it. It doesn't have a set limit to shots, but the cool down time is ten seconds for each shot. Got me?"

"What's that other thing?" asked Epps. Each of the former NEST operatives took a staff each.

"This is a Magibot. It's the term we used for the bots I wake up or the twins do. These are the communication models, so they can't fight. But they can't be blocked, traced or tampered with. Their range far exceeds normal radios so you can stay in contact with Lennox and the others. You need directions, you call it in."

The tiny bird-like robot (think about the same size as Pigwidgeon or Gylfie) chirped once before turning into headgear. Epps put his around his neck where it settled around like a necklace.

"Before you ask, the Autobots will be in route soon enough. They just have to walk through the portals and get through the streets to your location. And they will keep track of you through the Magibots," said Jack.

Four off duty teams from the SGC were with them, each armed to the teeth and ready to deal with Sentinel. This was nothing new to them. They were used to being out-manned and outgunned by aliens.

This was just the day they took payback. They didn't let the Gou'ald take Earth, and they sure as hell weren't letting some jumped up robot take it.

It was time...to show the universe Earth can and will defend itself.

* * *

**WHOO! Sorry it took so long to update folks! This will be a two-parter, and the next chapter won't be nearly as long as the previous ten. In fact, it will be the conclusion of Prongs. **

**However I do have the Sequel in the works which is going to be called the Revival of Cybertron. It will be under the Stargate Atlantis category as well as the Transformers. Any new Transformers movies will be picked up in that one. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!**


End file.
